Latest / Time with God with John North / Fear Pt. 3

Transcript

Fear Pt. 3 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. I love meeting with you each weekday morning
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  Speaker 1: at this time and just sharing with you as we
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  Speaker 1: go together to spend some time with God. Opening the
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  Speaker 1: Bible and letting God speak to you is meeting with God.
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  Speaker 1: God is here. He's right here with you right now,
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  Speaker 1: and he wants to speak to you through the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: That's why we call it God's Word.
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  Speaker 1: He wants to speak into your life. You know, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: we think, well, it's just words on the page, people
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  Speaker 1: have been reading it for thousands of years, uh, how
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  Speaker 1: can you say it's for me? Well, that's the work
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit, of God. He takes what he's
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  Speaker 1: said generally and makes it specific for your life, and
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  Speaker 1: that's what he wants to do today. We're talking all
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  Speaker 1: this week about fear and how to respond to fear
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  Speaker 1: in our lives, and we've been looking at a story
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  Speaker 1: from the Old Testament.
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  Speaker 1: Where the people of Israel have been led out of
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  Speaker 1: their slavery in Egypt by Moses, but Pharaoh has decided
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  Speaker 1: he wants to keep them. He's chasing them down with
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  Speaker 1: the whole army of Egypt, and the people of Israel
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  Speaker 1: are in such fear. What have we done? Why have
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  Speaker 1: we come this way? It's all going to turn out
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  Speaker 1: to be calamity.
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  Speaker 1: And isn't this what fear is in our lives, this
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  Speaker 1: perception of what might happen, what could happen, what's going
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  Speaker 1: to happen, because of the choices we've made or the
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  Speaker 1: situation we find ourselves in, and we have this fear
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  Speaker 1: of calamity that just takes over our mind, grips us,
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  Speaker 1: so that we can't even process our thoughts properly or
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  Speaker 1: think of a way through it.
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  Speaker 1: And we see here that God says to the people
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  Speaker 1: of Israel, don't be afraid, I'm going to get involved
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  Speaker 1: in this situation. And God does, and you remember that
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  Speaker 1: Moses stretches out his,
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  Speaker 1: Staff over the sea and God causes the sea to part,
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  Speaker 1: and all night the wind blows and there's dry ground
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  Speaker 1: for the nation of Israel to walk over in, and
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  Speaker 1: the Egyptians see that and they start to follow them
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  Speaker 1: and
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  Speaker 1: God says to Moses, Stretch out your staff again, and
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  Speaker 1: the seas crash together and kill the entire Egyptian army,
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  Speaker 1: and the people of Israel are saved.
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  Speaker 1: And it says at the end of that story, thus
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  Speaker 1: the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of
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  Speaker 1: the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
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  Speaker 1: Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against
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  Speaker 1: the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they
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  Speaker 1: believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.
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  Speaker 1: Well, what does this tell us about fear in our
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  Speaker 1: lives and how we respond to it?
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  Speaker 1: Here's the thing
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  Speaker 1: The fear of God is different than the terror of
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  Speaker 1: calamity that we are paralysed by.
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  Speaker 1: When the Bible talks about the fear of God, it's
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  Speaker 1: not talking about being in terror of what God's going
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  Speaker 1: to do to us. It's talking about confidence we have
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  Speaker 1: because we respect who God is and what he can
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  Speaker 1: do for us as we walk his way in life.
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  Speaker 1: So here's the thing.
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  Speaker 1: The fear of God puts your fear of that other
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  Speaker 1: thing in your life into perspective.
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  Speaker 1: And greatly reduces its significance, right? You're afraid of this,
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  Speaker 1: but then here's this amazing God who can do so much,
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  Speaker 1: and who has done these things for you in the
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  Speaker 1: past when you've trusted Him, and when you start to
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  Speaker 1: look at God instead of the thing, your fear starts
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  Speaker 1: to dissipate. You remember when,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus was walking on the water in the storm and
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  Speaker 1: the disciples were terrified, and he said, don't worry, it's me.
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  Speaker 1: And Peter said, well, let me come out on the
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  Speaker 1: water too, and Jesus says, come on. And Peter gets
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  Speaker 1: out and he's walking on the water, but then he
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  Speaker 1: stops looking at Jesus and starts looking.
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  Speaker 1: At the waves around him, and suddenly he's terrified of
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  Speaker 1: the impending calamity, and he starts to sink. Why? Because
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  Speaker 1: he stopped looking at Jesus and started looking at the waves. Well,
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  Speaker 1: what are the waves in your life today? You think
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  Speaker 1: they're so big, you think there's nothing you can do
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  Speaker 1: to get out of this terrible situation.
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  Speaker 1: Don't forget there is someone much bigger than this situation
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  Speaker 1: who is in your life, and that is Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Keep your eyes on Him and rest in the knowledge
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  Speaker 1: that He is with you in whatever you're facing. I'm
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  Speaker 1: John North.
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  Speaker 2: To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.