[0:00] All right, please take your Bibles. Join me back in Luke chapter number 12. The God of all our days is the reason we sing. And we know that every day is not the same.
[0:11] Mondays aren't the same as Saturdays. And some Mondays aren't the same as last Monday or maybe another one. But life comes in seasons. And the song said that He's been faithful through all of those.
[0:22] I love sharing good news. I love sharing good news with God's people. Get to do that this morning. And then even through the night, as Greg mentioned, that I'll be looking at the theology of sleep. And how the truth of this morning carries through our proverb for the night to help us with that.
[0:37] Today we'll have more stories than I normally do. Not stories about me. But I really, with all my heart, desire to help persuade you to make application of this passage. Helping you determine that you're going to apply it to your life will be more difficult than explaining the text for you.
[0:53] Over the last few months, starting back in January, we've had several sermons that have to do with passages that deal with worry, anxiety, and stress. And so as I come to this passage today, I doubt any of you want to leave and say, No, I took care of this two months ago.
[1:08] All right? I made decisions there. I cast all my cares upon the Lord. None of them have returned back. And I haven't got any new ones. That's probably not the case because we continually get to a place where we have to recognize who God is and who we are not and cast our cares upon Him.
[1:23] And I pray that this will help you today. Man has said many things about worry and sorrow and stress through the years. Some say it gives a small thing a big shadow. Others say it's interest that we pay on tomorrow's troubles.
[1:37] It's like a rocking chair. It'll give you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere. Worry is an indication that we think God cannot look after us. It's putting a question mark where God has put periods.
[1:49] It's the interest we pay on tomorrow's troubles. It is an intrusion in the God's providence. It is a guest admitted which quickly turns to a master. I really like that one.
[2:00] You play with worry just a little bit, and the next thing you know you are its servant. It never robs tomorrow of its sorrows. It only saps the day of its strength. It is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.
[2:12] It's practical atheism and an affront to God. It, worry shifts the focus of our attention from all the sufficient power of Christ to your human insufficiency and insecurity.
[2:24] Ultimately, worry can undermine your Christian witness by presenting God as a powerless and unworthy of praise. So much can be said about worry of the day, and Jesus says so much to His disciples about it and addressing them.
[2:38] He's addressing His disciples. We've seen from this dialogue that started, there are tens of thousands of people that are around, but He is dealing with these heart issues with them. Beware of covetousness.
[2:49] Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And now He's speaking to them about something very practical, which is worry. The people that are walking literally day by day with Jesus still battle with worry.
[3:01] And it starts off here with, therefore I say unto you, which means that we must import the previous story into this for Him to give us a big picture of what a life would look like if we were to be rich and live worry free.
[3:17] And we have a great contrast of what that would be. When we ended last time, it said, so is He that layeth up treasure for Himself and not rich toward God. There was a man that was rich, but he was not rich towards God.
[3:31] He had accumulated stuff, and now he has to worry about keeping up with that stuff. So he built bigger barns, and he was always worrying about it. He was worried what he was going to do with it. In verses 19 through 21, it says, Matthew 6, 19-21, parallel passage here, telling, So this man's life, if you were to describe it in one word, it would just simply be fear.
[4:26] He had to live a fearful life. He made some mistakes in his thinking. He thought he was the owner of his stuff, and he wasn't just a steward. He was worried about the present, forgetting about eternity.
[4:37] He was concerned only for the physical needs, but not his spiritual needs. And he treasured stuff more than people. He lived an isolated life. Remember all the eyes that we saw through?
[4:48] He even spoke to himself, I'm worried about this, I have to do this. But he never was talking about taking care of his family, never talking about taking care of God's work and the kingdom. He lived a very self-centered life that made him just tied up all the time in fear, or if you would like to say, worry.
[5:06] His life was defined by the fear of the things of the world, with no concern for eternal things of God. Luke 12, 20, But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
[5:19] Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? He didn't know who was going to leave it for. Some of you might have heard of the Pacific Garden Mission. There's a series of radio on the radio called Unshackled.
[5:32] Many of the stories have come from that. And there was a man named Sunshine, last name Harris, who at the age of 71 comes off the streets, and there he receives a New Testament.
[5:45] And he reads from this passage, Luke 12, 20, that fool, this night your soul shall be required of you. And he can't get over that. So Sunshine, he tries to find it again in the Bible.
[5:57] He didn't know the passage, where it was at. And so he keeps looking for it. So he begins in Matthew chapter number 1, verse number 1 in the genealogies. And he continues reading until he gets to that passage about his soul being required of the Lord.
[6:13] And then when he does, in 1899, a lady led him to the Lord when he realized that he would stand someday before God. Even though he wasn't the rich man in the story, he, just like the rich man, would one day have to stand before God.
[6:29] And that was 71 years of his life. He had been worried about everything in the world, but he had never been worried about the things of eternity. And he spent his remaining years there at the Garden Mission, out on the sidewalk, handing out New Testaments to people that were walking by, letting them know that one day that their soul would be required, and that they need to stop worrying about the things of this life, but they should look to eternal things.
[6:55] So what does fear have to do with worry? We say worry, we say fear. What does fear have to do with worry? And the answer in one word is everything. Worry has everything to do with fear, or fear has to do with worry.
[7:08] It's a matter of the heart. So recently we had tax time. Hope all of you knew that, right? And during tax time, none of you received from the church or from the IRS a new Bible.
[7:19] Hey, congratulations, you're now in a new tax bracket, so we want to give you a new edition of God's Word so that this will help you apply life where you're at. That doesn't happen, right?
[7:30] Because the area of worry isn't a matter of a tax bracket. It's a matter of your heart. And God's Word here is sufficient to address the matters of the heart no matter who reads it.
[7:42] In history or any place in this world, no matter what tax bracket you're in, no matter what language you speak, God's Word is sufficient. It tells us that you cannot serve two masters.
[7:53] You're going to either love one or hate the other. In the world we live in, some of our students, I know Jacob Mast here has worked several jobs at times, and you can do that. You can work several part-time jobs.
[8:05] Some of you have worked several full-time jobs at a time, and you're able to do that in the way that we view our lives. You could work at one place during the day and work at another place at night, but you'll never be able to serve two masters because a master requires your whole life, requires everything that you would give to them.
[8:24] So Jesus tells the disciples that they'll never be able to do this. In verse number 22, he says, And he said to his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought of your life, what you shall eat, neither for your body, what you should put on.
[8:35] He says, Take no thought of your life. He is not speaking of a thoughtless life, where you're just going through it with no consideration of other people, or no planning.
[8:45] But he's saying, Do not be like Martha was, just a little bit ago, where you're so cumbered and always considering the things of this world. Don't be putting your thought in these lesser things, but you need to put your things in things that are of God.
[9:01] A very rich man who had run after the things of the world had overtaken them. As he was laying there dying, he was visited by his daughter of a friend with whom he had been associated in early youth, but had left their profitable business to serve Christ.
[9:18] Now he too was dying, but with great peace of mind and holy confidence. And the man that was dying there said, You may wonder why I cannot be as happy and as quiet as he, said the unsaved millionaire.
[9:33] But just think of the difference between us. He is going to his treasure, and I must leave mine. He was cumbered with the things of this world. He had given great thought to his life.
[9:44] Everything that had mattered, everything that he had ever poured his life into was underneath the sun. And so now here he's going to die, and he's going to be eternally separated. But the life of a believer is a person who lived for the world to come, had invested in the things of God, and so as he was dying, he had great peace, because he was headed to his treasure and not away from it.
[10:06] What worship is to belief, worry is to unbelief. What worship is to a believing person, worry is to us as unbelieving people.
[10:19] My head assures me that he will, but my heart is not quite so certain. It's a matter of the heart. Proverbs 12, 25, heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad.
[10:33] A life of worry, it's going to rob you of the joy that's available to you, and that is a real shame. But more importantly, it robs God of the worship that he deserves. When you're not worshiping based upon belief, it's because you are worrying based upon unbelief here.
[10:49] I'm told that a dense fog that would cover seven city blocks, a hundred feet deep, is composed of less than one glass of water that's divided into 60,000 million drops, so much that it could cripple a whole community.
[11:07] That one glass of water spread out the 60,000 million drops. Fear is this defining characteristic, but that little bit of fear in your heart, it can just spread all throughout your life.
[11:19] It can consume you completely. It can make you live in worry. And so here in verse 32, fear not. The antidote of worrying is the fear not, little flock, for it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
[11:33] The word worry and fear, they are interchangeable. I could tell you, I worry that my kids are not prepared for life, but I could also say, I fear that my kids aren't prepared for life.
[11:43] I could say, I worry about my finances, or I could say, I have fears concerning my finances. I'd really like to challenge you to change your language when it comes to talking about worry.
[11:56] I met with a friend this week. I was worried about some things, but I chose before I met with them that I wasn't going to just say what is so common to say, I'm worried about this. I thought I would just speak truthfully and say, I have fear concerning this.
[12:12] I am afraid concerning this. You know, the great thing you do when you talk to another Christian and you speak in a biblical way here and not just say something that is so common, but you speak and I say, I fear or I'm afraid, is that your friend knows how to respond to that.
[12:27] Kind of for some of you that play volleyball in here, when that ball is just kind of floating right above the net, you know, you know exactly what you're supposed to do with that thing. You're supposed to spike it on the head of the person on the other side of the net.
[12:39] So when I say that I worry, many of you would say, well, I worry too because it's fashionable. It's not an issue. But when your friend says, I'm afraid or I fear, then you immediately need to say, well, what is it about God that would cause you to fear?
[12:55] What is it about the goodness of God that would allow you to fear this thing? So getting honest about our worry is a great step of addressing it here. Worry not just about potential events in life, but even the possibility of those events.
[13:10] So much worry is about things that will never come to happen. If you were to go to London, there's a home of Thomas Carl there, and that will show you that he had almost a soundproof chamber that Carlisle had built so the noise of the streets should be shut out, and he would work in silence.
[13:26] One of his neighbors, however, kept a rooster that several times in the night in the early morning gave out a vigorous self-expression. When Carlisle protested to the owner of the rooster, the man pointed out to him that the rooster crowed only three times in the night, and that, after all, could not be such a terrible annoyance.
[13:46] But Carlisle said unto him, if he only knew what I was suffering waiting for that rooster to crow. All right? So the rooster crows two or three times throughout the night, but he has to stay up all night worrying about it.
[14:01] So much of our worry does not come from events that are happening, but they come from the potential that would be there. The fear of the possibility that something could go wrong.
[14:12] This is something that's common to all men. In 1 Peter 5, 7, and when it says, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you, it says that God cares for you, which is central to our understanding of addressing our fear.
[14:26] But it says, the castor cares upon him, it gives it as a stated fact that every one of us are going to have cares in our lives that has to be cast upon him.
[14:36] None of you live completely free from the cares of this life. There's no way to get to it. There's no way to simplify your life enough that you never have the cares of this world because it's a matter of the heart.
[14:49] Even when everything is perfect in place, you can still worry about it. Here's some ways to test this. When the thing that you're concerned about is the first thing that you think about in the morning and the last thing that you think about at night, when you find yourself thinking about it during every spare moment, when you find yourself bringing up in every conversation that you have, then you know that your heart is gripped by fear and worry.
[15:17] So that's the negative side that is calming the man and you're not going to outgrow it on this side of eternity. You're going to constantly be brought to it and you're constantly going to have to cast it upon the Lord. But here's great news.
[15:28] It's unnecessary. Luke 12, 29. And seek ye not that ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of a doubtful mime. You don't have to. A study from Ohio State University, didn't know Robert would be here but he'll appreciate this here.
[15:42] It says, the goal of any treatment is to make anxiety a manageable part of our daily existence. When the world speaks about anxiety and worry and stress, it talks about making it a managed anxiety in our lives.
[15:56] It's making it manageable. But Jesus says, we don't have to live with a doubtful mind. It doesn't have to exist. We don't have to manage it. All right? So manage your anxieties can only lead to the same that we have a wealth of poverty.
[16:12] That's all you're ever going to see if you just manage it. You need to cast it out. A band of gangsters in France got away with more than 3.5 million, whatever they have over there, francs, I guess.
[16:24] Right? Francs? Sound good? All right. But the thieves had a problem. The loot was in French coins. That's what we'll say. Worth only about $2 each and it weighed a total of 17 tons.
[16:35] So they stole 3.5 million, but it weighed 17 tons. A Paris newspaper taunted the bandage with a statement, you can't buy a chateau, a car, or even a pair of crocodile shoes with a bag of change.
[16:47] And if you go out to celebrate your coup, the owner of the smallest cafe will become suspicious before you drop the 10th coin on the counter. The article continued, their punishment is included in their success.
[16:58] They have spent their loot franc by franc. They can buy millions of bottles of soft drinks, but what else? These robbers had what might be called a wealth of poverty. Although they were rich, they couldn't spend their money for anything worthwhile.
[17:13] That's all that you can do with your worry and stress if you don't take it to the Lord. All you can do is divide it into these small things and just deal with it. A life on the run from the place where you're trying to spend $3.5 million, $2 at a time sounds absolutely miserable, right?
[17:28] Unless you want to live out of a vending machine, that is not a way to live. I would much rather just live an honest life and surrender and say, I'm so tired of managing this big problem in small doses here and to surrender.
[17:42] So what we must do is we must introduce our fears to our great God. We have three wonderful descriptions of our great God and how our heart needs to hear when it battles fear.
[17:54] All three of those descriptions were referenced today in the songs that we've sung and they're referenced often in the songs we sing. Fear not, little flock. He's a shepherd for it's your father's good pleasure.
[18:05] He has a father to give you the kingdom. Who can give you a kingdom but only a king? Those three descriptions of God as father, shepherd, and king. First off, fear you need to meet my father.
[18:20] You see, you and I exist for a higher purpose. We are the children of God. Verse 23, the life is more than meat and the body is more than raiment. We're more than mannequins.
[18:31] We're more than just mouths to feed. Teenagers, you need to listen to this verse again, okay? Life is more than your meat and your body is more than raiment. Life, young men, is more than what your next meal is going to be and young ladies, it's more than what you're going to put on, all right?
[18:45] We are not just mannequins that we have to feed. We're so much more than that. Worry causes us to forget the divine priority that God has placed upon our lives.
[18:57] We are not like the beasts of the field. We are not like even other nations of unbelieving people. We are the children of God. Birds know that they will be cared for. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them.
[19:12] How much more are you better than the fowls? A poem here said, said the robin to the sparrow, I should really like to know why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so.
[19:25] Said the sparrow to the robin, Friend, I think that it must be they have no heavenly father such as cares for you and me. That's an unknown author, but it must have been a bird, which makes it absolutely amazing, all right?
[19:38] And so that's a poem by a bird. But birds don't write poems, and birds don't farm, all right? You never beat farmer bird, all right? They don't do that, but even though they don't do any of those things, God provides for them, verse 30, For all these things do the nations the world seek after, and your father knoweth that you have need of these things.
[19:58] Our fear needs to know something. It needs to know this, we are the children of God. We have a father in heaven, and our fear needs to be introduced to him on a daily basis.
[20:11] Fear needs to meet our father, and our stress needs to meet our shepherd. Much of our fear comes from believing that we will not have enough. Greed is disdain, but somehow we let worry be fashionable.
[20:23] Greed says you can never get enough, but worry is afraid that we may not have enough. Psalm 147, 9, He give us to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. As the bird had said, God provides to them, but do you believe that your shepherd will not care for you?
[20:40] When you say, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Do you really believe that that is true? And if you do, you will worship, and if you don't, you will worry. If he gave you life, he will sustain that life and provide all you need as you continue to honor him.
[20:57] Because God's provision is greater than anyone else could ever provide for themselves. King Solomon, consider him, that in everything that he had available, he could not meet his needs and provide for himself as much as the lilies could.
[21:12] That do they not spend or toil, that they are taken care of. Nobody has ever had somebody that provided for them greater than our shepherd provides for us.
[21:25] And God will take care of us until our appointed time. As creator, he determines the length of our days. And which of you taking thought can add to the stature of one cupid if you then be able to do this thing which is least?
[21:37] Why take you thought for the rest? This is typically where we take an opportunity to make fun of short people, which is always a fun thing to do, right? But here in the passage, we're looking at more than just being taller.
[21:48] We're looking about adding to your life. We're looking at your whole life, not just your height. But how would you add to your life? If you can't add a single minute to your life, then why do you think that you are your own great shepherd?
[22:02] You have no ability to do that at all. You must rest in the care of your shepherd. You can't do the smallest thing when it comes to your life.
[22:13] And you must trust that the shepherd will. So our stress needs to meet our shepherd. And then lastly, our worry needs to meet our warrior king.
[22:25] Why warrior king? Because it starts with a W. But also, because he has taken the kingdom. He has provided it for us. He is the one that secured it. It's not you and I that have done that.
[22:37] He didn't say he will give you something out of the kingdom. He doesn't say that he will give you the resources from the kingdom. But he says he will give you what? He will give you the kingdom. Everything that brings about righteousness and joy and peace, every resource, the kingdom, your father delights to give you.
[22:54] Romans 14, 17. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The kingdom is not what you have next to eat.
[23:05] It's not what you're going to put on. But the kingdom that's available to you is righteousness and peace and joy. And he has given that to you. Our lives shall give priority to the kingdom.
[23:17] Verse 31, But rather seek you the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Heaven is scarcely a reality to a man who is not prepared to invest hard in it and its interest.
[23:32] But by the same token, it becomes more of a reality to the man who is. Let me put it a different way to you. If you live like there is no heaven, then you should not be surprised when the reality of the kingdom does not bring you any comfort.
[23:48] Make-believe land, a fairy tale, it brings no lasting comfort to you. But that's how many Christians treat the kingdom. It's a fairy tale. It's nothing that affects this world that we live in.
[24:01] Our life group today, Dan shared Penrod about some friends that passed away and the comfort we take in is there was a place prepared for them. There is a real heaven and if you know that there's a real heaven, it brings real comfort to you.
[24:15] But if you don't invest in the kingdom, if you don't invest and live your life like there's a heaven, then when the time comes, why would you believe that this fairy tale or make-believe land would ever bring any comfort to you?
[24:27] Jesus has given us what has been given to Him. Luke 22, 29, and I appointed you a kingdom as my Father has appointed unto me. He has given us the kingdom.
[24:40] John Wanamaker opened the department store in Philadelphia in the 19th century. Within a few years, that enterprise had become one of the most successful businesses in the country. But operating his store wasn't Wanamaker's only responsibility.
[24:53] He was also named as the Postmaster General of the United States. How many of you know how much a stamp costs in here? Would you raise your hand? All right. How many of you know? Nobody knows how much a stamp costs.
[25:03] All right. Miss Sandy does. I'll tell you the second part of that joke later. Okay, Miss Sandy. All right. Only, Miss Jesus says, only old people know how much stamps are. All right. But that's not true. Miss Sandy knows here today.
[25:14] Back to my story. All right. And he was the Postmaster General of the United States, and he served as a superintendent for what was the largest sun school in the world at that time. When someone asked him how he could hold all these positions at once, running a department store, Postmaster General, running the Sunday school, he said this, Early in life I read, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
[25:41] The Sunday school is my business. All the rest are the things. One evidence of Wanamaker's desire to keep the Lord's work and first in his life was specially constructed soundproof room in his store.
[25:53] Every day he spent 30 minutes there praying and meditating upon God's Word. He had his priorities straight. Change Postmaster General, place your vocation in it. Change Sunday school, place the way that God is using you to make disciples.
[26:07] Change out it, but it must be the same, the priority in life. Probably don't get to make a soundproof room. For some of you, you try to hide from the kids, even in the bathroom, but the kids come and find you wherever you're at.
[26:20] But you have to make a place in your life where you set the priority of your life and seek first the kingdom. It is with pleasure that our Father, Shepherd, and King will confront our fears.
[26:32] Fear not, little flock, for the reason, because it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. We see Him as great and mighty in all three of those descriptions. But if He's the Father, the Shepherd, and the King, but if He doesn't care for us, then none of that would ever make a difference for us.
[26:50] His good pleasure directed towards us is the reason that we should not have fear and worry. So what are you worrying about? What are you fearful about? What are you anxious about?
[27:02] There is no reluctance in our God. Yes, we're vulnerable, a little flock, but our Father, Shepherd, and King is not reluctant in His care for us. Have you ever received an invitation from somebody to come over to the house, to have a meal, and you talk yourself out of it?
[27:18] And you say, well, they invited us over, but you say, but I don't know if they really meant it. I don't know if they were just being nice. I don't know if they really want us over to the house. Do they remember that it was this day? And you talk yourself out of it.
[27:31] Even though the invitation was extended, and you're not worried that they couldn't provide for you. I mean, you never say, well, I can't go over to the Pepperdines. I don't know if they can make food for me, you know? You never say anything like that.
[27:41] You know that they have the ability to do it, but you just wonder, did they really mean what they say? This is where you need to know that a perfect love casts out fear.
[27:53] In the book of 1 John, nothing would make John happier than to see generations of Christians who were utterly confident that God would accept them and provide for them. 1 John 1, 4 says, And these things write unto you that your joy may be full.
[28:07] A joyful life is not one that is filled with worry and of fear. Verse 17 and 18, I'm about to read to you. You're going to see something that everybody wants to have in verse 17. And in verse number 18, you're going to find something that everybody wants to get rid of.
[28:22] Verse 17, something that everybody wants to have. Verse 18, something everybody wants to get rid of. Herein is our love made perfect. That's what everybody wants to have. That we may have boldness in the day of judgment because He is, so are we in this world.
[28:35] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. If the love that we have for one another is not made perfect and being lived out, it does not give a confidence.
[28:54] We must live in fear. I receive an invitation from my friends, and if I don't believe that they really love and care for me, the only other option I would have is to live in fear and in worry.
[29:06] So your battle with worry is a battle with fear, and your fear is either based on a lack of understanding, that you don't understand that He is king, that He is shepherd, and He is father, and that He is either capable, or it's either based on your understanding that He is not only all those things, but it's His good pleasure that casts out fear in your life, that He wants to do that.
[29:29] He wants you to bring that to Him, and so God's love is perfect towards us, and that has been shown to us time and time again. And 1 John is speaking about a perfect love that is demonstrated to us, that the love we have for one another, it ought to not bring fear because it's perfectly shown, it's perfectly demonstrated one to another.
[29:52] For the sake of you in here that are believing, and those that may be in here or online that are watching that are not believing, let me remind you why the love of God was expressed to us in a perfect way. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
[30:07] That's taught biblically, that's true, and that's what makes it true, but we also know that. There's no greater expression that a person could show that they love you than to lay their life down for you.
[30:19] Jesus Christ, He laid down His life for you. His love is made perfect towards us. Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
[30:38] When considering dying for you, it brought Him joy. Isaiah 53, 10, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath put Him the grief.
[30:50] When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see a seed, and he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. It satisfied Him.
[31:01] Jesus Christ loves you, and He wants to cast out all fear that is in your life. It brings Him pleasure to give you everything that is available in the kingdom.
[31:13] The question is, can you trust Him? Do you know that He's sufficient and powerful enough? Yes. But do you know that that God that is loving, He loves you, and He wants to help you in your time of need?
[31:24] Ask you as an unbeliever right here, and as we pray, do you genuinely put your life in the hands of the Lord? You will need to abandon it, but you can trust Him.
[31:37] You can hand your life over to Him. Maybe in your life so far you have been hurt on every side. Maybe you've even been hurt by people that were supposed to represent God, that said that they were Christians, and so you have been fearful of this.
[31:51] Can I tell you that you can trust your life into the hands of God? He is most certainly worthy of it. So whatever fear you may have today, it should be cast out because His love is perfect towards you.
[32:04] And believer, we are told that we can have boldness in the day of judgment, that I will be able to stand before the God of heaven with boldness because I know that His love was perfect towards me without worry and without fear because that all-powerful God, He loves me He gave His life for me.
[32:25] And if I can stand before God on the day of boldness with confidence, then why can't I stand before Him on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday without fear and worry in my heart but knowing that He loves me because He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
[32:42] He loves us. So it's time to introduce your fears to your father. And this is what the conversation needs to happen. Fear, I want you to know that my father loves me more than you could ever hate me.
[32:57] Fear, I want you to know that my father is more powerful than you are destructive. And fear, I want you to know this. You may come and go in my life, but my father is always faithful.
[33:09] And when you knock, he will always be there because he's never going to leave my side. We need to answer our fears by letting our father answer the door and tell them that they need to leave because we can trust Him.
[33:23] Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your Word. Lord, I thank You for this perfect love that casts out fear. Lord, being somebody that has lived some days upon this earth, Lord, I know that fear comes on every corner.
[33:39] Lord, that worry comes on every corner. And my heart, Lord, is so heavy for parents in here, those who have parents that are older in life, Lord, that they care for, those that go through job transitions, those that have so many things, Lord, that weigh upon them.
[33:55] Father, I can't take those from them. They cannot cast them upon me. I am completely insufficient to do anything for these fears, Lord, that have just weighed so heavy upon their heart.
[34:09] Heavenly Father, I pray right now for those who yet to believe they have never been willing to let go of their life and hand it over to You. Lord, I pray that You will bring the heaviest of conviction upon their lives, that they will see their need of You.