0:00:00 - 0:00:20 So this morning, as I was passing through the collection of thoughts that typically fills my heart and mind first thing in the morning, uh, before I can get down to sort of the chugging away at, at the, the books here in the morning. I have to process all the thoughts from the day before. And I was thinking 0:00:20 - 0:00:46 about this quote from Seneca, which says he suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary. And I was contemplating some situations in my life of late where I've really have experienced an enormous alleviation from worry, uh through trusting in God. And just, just yesterday, for example 0:00:45 - 0:01:09 , um, one of my kids, we, we've got our backyard locked down like Fort Knox because we have Huskies and they escape. So we've got 6 ft fence and uh a single strand electric at the base to keep them out in all kinds of gates and keep them in rather. And uh, yeah, collections of large rocks where they've 0:01:09 - 0:01:29 tried to find a way to dig through anyway, et cetera. And one of the kids left the gate open. And so all the Huskies ran out and then some of them, we were able to catch before they took off and two of them just, just flat out booked it. And, um, we did what we could to find them. We did the normal circuit 0:01:28 - 0:01:48 . We texted at all. The neighbors said they're on the, on the lam if they see them, let us know. And, um, you know, we have little tags on them with our phone number. Um, because this isn't the first time that this has happened. And anyway, once we did what we could, we just went ahead with the rest 0:01:48 - 0:02:08 of the day. And it's interesting because, um, it's, it's highly likely that the end result when, when dogs get out like that in an area like this is that they're going to die. We have a highway not too far away and there are grizzly bears and mountain lions or whatever else and hunters that might mistake 0:02:07 - 0:02:27 them for a wolf or something and other dogs and chickens, people with chickens and legally you could shoot dogs that eat your chickens around here anyway. Um, but ii, I honestly, I, I didn't think about it. I, I said a little prayer and, you know, that will be done kind of thing and, and then moved on 0:02:27 - 0:02:50 and you, you know, if you've seen the video about, uh, a dog that we had to put down not too long ago that, that I had to put down. Um, you know, I love these animals very much. But um this is just an example that, that most of our suffering. It's, it's uh it's not intrinsic to the situation. There's 0:02:49 - 0:03:14 plenty of suffering out there that that is and uh a lot more suffering that's out there that we will encounter as we walk in the Lord's way. But here's, here's the principle. When you fear God, you don't have room to fear anything else. When you fear God, you don't have room to fear anything else. Um 0:03:13 - 0:03:33 Before I talk more about that, I, I do want to reiterate. It's always important too. When this topic comes up, fear is not the ideal emotion to feel, feel towards God. And I know a lot of people have spent a lot of time trying to redefine fear and say it's about respecting God. It's not like we mean 0:03:33 - 0:03:58 it. Uh I think there's a, there's a certain value obviously for respecting God, but there is such thing as fear of God. Um Almost everyone who's ever seen him has feared him. And it's a fear that exceeds what anything less than Him could generate. It's, it's, it's legitimate. There's, there's really 0:03:58 - 0:04:18 something to it and it's, it's described as terrible. So in, in the book, Seek You, this Jesus, I, I wrote a chapter called Terrible or Glorious about the presence of the Lord. You'll find a lot of scripture references there on this, on this topic, but fear is not the ideal motion with God love is, there's 0:04:18 - 0:04:45 no fear in love but perfect love. Caste out fear because fear hath torment. He, that fear is not made perfect in love. First John 418 in first John 417. This is the er v translation. If God's love is made perfect in us, we can be without fear. On the day when God judges the world, we will be without 0:04:45 - 0:05:08 fear because in this world we are like Jesus. That's an interesting one, isn't it? Uh If you love God, you have to obey Him. This is why, you know, it's important to spell this out because people are like, well, I love God. Well, are you like him? Because if you're not, then you probably can't make the 0:05:08 - 0:00:00 claim. So not to, not to sort of say, you know, I have any right to tell you what you can and can't say about your relationship with God. You could describe it as loving Him. But if you do, you're using a word that that means a lot less than what he means when he says it or what the scriptures mean, 0:00:00 - 0:05:50 when they describe love for God, because love for God is described there. It includes completely living exactly as you imagine the Lord would in your place. Uh sincerely believe what he would, what, what you sincerely believe he would do in your place. You're, you're totally reflective of that. Um You 0:05:50 - 0:06:15 can't actually uh you can't say that you love him. If, if you don't believe him and, and do what he says. Um He said you're my friends if you do whatsoever. I command you in John 1514, he said in John 1421 and 24. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me, he that loveth 0:06:15 - 0:06:38 me. Not keepeth not my sayings. So um it's much better to love God than to fear Him. But for those who aren't there yet, fear is good. That's, that's the first step. Those who fear God will come to love him. Uh that that's probably gonna be an unpopular message. But anybody that is going to disagree 0:06:38 - 0:06:57 with me on that better bring evidence that they actually do everything that Jesus would do in their place because otherwise according to his own words and the words of John who knew him better than you do. Um That's a requirement to say that you love God. And so of course you won't have the blessings 0:06:56 - 0:07:19 of actually loving Him if you don't actually love him. And uh if we're not there, fear is a really nice way to help us get there. So anyway, if you love him, obviously, you're not gonna worry about anything except Him. But if you fear Him, you also shouldn't worry about anything except Him. The one is 0:07:19 - 0:07:39 better than the other, but this will, this is, this is still an improvement for, for where most of you are in DC 636. We read, look unto me in every thought. Doubt, not fear, not if you are looking at him in every thought, you don't have any space for doubting or fearing. There's nothing available to 0:07:39 - 0:07:56 occupy that with that. Um, I, I saw once a, a training method for dogs where you carry a hot dog or something and you give the dog a little taste of it every once in a while and they learn to look at you all the time and, and stop worrying about things around them, like squirrels running around or whatever 0:07:56 - 0:08:22 . And it's, it's kind of like that. Uh If you're looking at God, how can you be looking at anything else? So, um, the only things you'll see or care about in life are those that overlap with that. If you want an interesting study, uh you can read through references of seeking his face in the scriptures 0:08:21 - 0:08:47 and that means uh pursuing his purpose. And if you're focused on that, the, there's no space left for anything else. That's why if you make your eye single to his glory, then your body will be full of light because there, there's no, what else would it be? Right? It's fully focused. So, um most of the 0:08:47 - 0:09:09 worrying that people do in life, it's about things that they can't change and that's not good. And what, what ends up being the case is that we can choose to focus on something even to hyper focus on something that we can't do a dang thing about. No, there's some strange thing about our, our mental faculty 0:09:09 - 0:09:30 where if you focus on something you'll get more of it. Now, I'm not saying this is some weird New, new Age law or whatever. There's that thing out there. I don't remember the words that these folks use. That's, that's not what I'm talking about saying, saying when it comes to your feelings, when you 0:09:30 - 0:09:50 focus on something, it's like this fountain that just keeps going. And if you focus on something that's bad, it's, it's going to be a fountain of bad things and how you feel. Um If you're focused on God, it's about no good things and it's just always gonna get better. Um, there will be some momentary 0:09:50 - 0:10:11 downs but the, the overall trend will be positive and you'll, it'll get better and better brighter and brighter till the perfect day. Um If you focus on things you can't change, you can, you can perpetually generate negative feelings out of that bad stuff that you know, you'll feel anxiety, you'll feel 0:10:11 - 0:10:36 all distressed about this stressed out, you won't be able to sleep. Um Jesus said in, in Luke 1225 and 26. He said, which of you with taking thought can add to his stature. One cubit. The answer is none of us. None of us can just wish we were taller and get there. He continued. If ye then be not able 0:10:35 - 0:10:56 to do that thing, which is least why take ye thought for the rest. And so if, if you can't do something so simple as becoming taller, how do you think that just by wishing or by worrying about it, you can change anything in life. It's way more complicated than that. The Lord has laws, uh laws of cause 0:10:56 - 0:11:22 and effect. And as you learn and live those you can, can affect outcomes in this world. However, certain things are outside of your ability to directly change. So you should just not worry about them, easier said than done, right? But like I said, one fruitful avenue for this is learning to fear the 0:11:22 - 0:11:48 Lord. So when you really believe that he knows what's going on and he has all power and all wisdom, then then it becomes possible to yield to that and to truly feel peace. He said that he gives us peace not as the world gives, it's different. It doesn't come in the same way and it doesn't feel the same 0:11:47 - 0:12:12 . It's better, it's a lot better. It's not affected by what happens to you here. And now it transcends that. But the way you get that is by learning to trust him, learning to value him above all else, learning to fear him more than you fear anything else. I had a discussion with one of my kids once and 0:12:12 - 0:12:33 I'm trying to remember the specific situation I can't remember if there was some peer pressure going on with an older kid or something. But I said, why did I told you to do X? Why didn't you do X? You did Y instead? And he said, because I was scared and I said, scared of what? And he said whatever, it 0:12:33 - 0:12:57 was like my big brother or whatever. I said, you forget your big brother. You need to be scared of me. He was like, oh, but I didn't say it like, you know, we had to crack you one or whatever, but I was just like, look, here's the reality of the situation. Um, who's your brother scared of? And I, I said 0:12:56 - 0:13:13 , I said, seriously, I mean, um, let's say that you just did what I told you anyway. What, how do you think I would have handled the situation if you came and told me that he was getting in the way or whatever? I would have handled it and he wouldn't have been happy. And, uh, I think the kid understood 0:13:12 - 0:13:37 we're like that too. You know, we're little kids with God and, and sometimes he's got to tell it to us in a certain way. So we get it. That's not the ideal way. All parents want to have their kids, um, uh, obey is not, uh, the best word but do what's right. Obey them. But, but do what's right out of 0:13:37 - 0:14:00 love. But if they're not ready for that the first step is out of fear. It's not a bad thing. Right. It could be a good thing. There are, of course, bounds on the appropriate way to do this. But, uh, there are far worse things than to fear your parents. So we could probably do with a lot more of that 0:14:00 - 0:14:22 in the world today. Anyway, what we ought to worry about are the things that we can change. And it turns out that if we are worried about the things we can change, there's so much that we can do so much positive change, we can affect that we will not have an ounce of worry left. We won't have a second 0:14:22 - 0:14:43 of time or ounce of worry left. Now, on a practical note, something helps me with this. There's no secret is to prioritize my activities and I do that relentlessly. And so at the end of the day when there are things that didn't fit into that prioritization, I don't feel an ounce of guilt about it. I 0:14:43 - 0:15:03 don't feel any anxiety. I know that my whole life is aligned with the greatest benefit. If upon reflection, I find something that could be a little better. I change it instantly. Right. I start getting that switched over. Uh Some, sometimes it's a process, some, some changes you can't make in a second 0:15:03 - 0:15:26 but most you can. And um yeah, so that's that. So there's no stress there, there's no anxiety. Um And I thoroughly believe, I thoroughly understand that the gospel aspects of this and the practical, they completely overlap. They're one and the same. And so if you want peace in God, you have to orient 0:15:26 - 0:15:45 your life to his purpose for which is for the greatest benefit. And so when you do that, you become free from these things that weigh so many people down anyway. Yeah. So focus your life on what matters the most and you'll have great peace. You won't worry about the things that you can't control and 0:15:44 - 0:16:06 you'll fix all the things that you can. And a lot of that negativity, whether it's stress or anxiety or fear, it comes out of things that you absolutely can change. You just don't because you're wasting all your resources on things. You can't change all the worry that you have about that when it comes 0:16:05 - 0:16:29 to examples of this from the scriptures, one of my favorite ones is from David King, David in, in second Samuel 12. Um so David did a bad thing with Bathsheba and uh her husband. And as a result of that, the Lord's punishment for him included that he was going to lose his son with bath, Bathsheba. And 0:16:29 - 0:16:58 so he knew about this because the Lord told him and um during the sickness of the child, he uh he fasted, he did not attend to his normal duties as the king, he put on sackcloth and sat in ashes and uh he prayed and he was, he was disconsolate the, the, the, the his servants, his court, his, his friends 0:16:57 - 0:17:20 , they tried to get him to eat and he wouldn't, they tried to get him to uh leave his, his little place. He had set up, he wouldn't. And um this went on until David saw his servants whispering and it says in verse 19, but when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was 0:17:20 - 0:17:40 dead. Therefore, David said unto his servants is the child dead. And they said he is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and came into the house of the lord and worshiped, then he came to his own house. And when he required, they set bread before 0:17:40 - 0:18:02 him and he did eat. So before the kid died, the servants wondered why David wouldn't eat. He wouldn't do this, he wouldn't do that. And um there was still a chance that something could be done about it. And so David did everything he could. And then once the outcome arrived and, and this is a good example 0:18:02 - 0:18:27 because it's an outcome David wanted and he did not get what he had asked for. But once it happened, he uh he let go of it and he just moved on and we're not good at either of those things. We need to be better at both of those things, doing the, the things we can do that we don't do to get what we say 0:18:27 - 0:18:51 we want and then letting go when it's clear that what we want is not going to happen, that it's not the Lord's will. So a lot of that angst comes from the mistake in one way or the other and it's a misalignment from the Lord. Now, uh I think it's worth noting here that when he found out that the baby 0:18:51 - 0:19:17 had died, the first thing he did was he took a shower, he took a bath and he changed his clothes and he anointed himself and he did all of that. Uh The very next thing he did was to go to the house of the Lord. So he did all of that in preparation for formally coming before God. And that is, is some 0:19:17 - 0:19:44 reaction. So imagine the worst thing that you can enumerate in your life happening. And your very first reaction is not just to turn to God and worship, but to do so in deep reverence, in deep reverence. That's really something, isn't it? So, and then after that, so he had fasted for some time. He, he 0:19:44 - 0:20:10 was hungry and it wasn't till after all that, that he then took care of his own needs and ate something that's very interesting. Uh So he went back home and then he ate and this is the servant mentality. When we are in the service of the Lord, we attend to him first and foremost and sometimes it's a 0:20:10 - 0:20:34 short period of time before we get. Um I don't want to say this in the way I'm going to, but I'm not sure how to say it better till he releases us to our own concerns. Um Ideally, there's no separation between the two in the sense that what our concerns are, his concerns or his concerns are our concerns 0:20:33 - 0:20:55 . But uh sometimes that's a long stretch and Jesus made it very plain. He said, what servant is there that, that uh at the end of the day, he just sits down and eats, he serves his master at the end of the day. And it's not until he's released from his master service that he goes and sorts himself out 0:20:54 - 0:21:21 . And uh we're, we're meant to attend to the Lord anyway. That's most of the time, the fear and anxiety and all the negative feelings we feel most of the time they come from our deviation from the Lord's purpose, whether that's in our practice or in our hearts. So you can, you can um you can begrudgingly 0:21:20 - 0:21:38 serve the Lord. And that's not the point. The point is that our hearts and our actions are aligned with his purpose. So I, I hope that that's helpful. If you fear God, you're not gonna have space to fear anyone or anything else, you're just gonna be hard charging for the Lord all the time.