Reputation

YP Talk—Stephen Rule
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'll jump the gun for something a little bit later while the last few were coming in. Anyone doesn't have a writing implement? Mind raising your hand and I'll try to get you a one to borrow.
OK, let's begin with, uh, speaking to the Lord.
Dear Lord Jesus, we just give thanks for the tremendous privilege we have of speaking with thee and listening to. We ask that each of us would gain, uh, gain in our hearts, gain in our lives, and take with us. We'll bring more glory and honor to thee. This basket, Lord Jesus, in thy name, Amen.
Uh, before we get going, for the benefit of our memories or for those that weren't here yesterday, I wanted to review real quickly what we did last night. We talked about the fear of God and character. Character, at least for the definition I gave for the purposes of last night and tonight, is how God sees us. That's our character. So God sees us. There are things that we gain when God is at the center of our thoughts and we're in the fear of God.
All the day long, there are four things that we gain. There's lots more than that. Before we talked about last night, Help me out Wisdom was one of them.
With, umm, courage.
Intimacy.
One more when we squeeze in at the end integrity.
And we looked at examples from God's Word on those.
So I will look at the other side of things. Thank you very much. We'll look at the other side of things, the fear of man. The fear of man has to do with our reputations. At least that's the aspect of it we'll talk about. When we are putting other people, not God, at the center of our thoughts, what they have to think about us is our reputation. What God has to think about us is our character. So tonight we're going to look at the other side, What other people?
Have to think about us if we put that and really it's putting man and his thoughts in the middle. If we put that in the middle, we are going to end up with loss and look at four or five things that we may lose when we put other people's thoughts of us at the center.
And then there'll be a little caveat, little disclaimer at the end so that we don't get the idea that doesn't matter what anybody thinks about me, I'm gonna do what I wanna do. That's not the point. The point of it is having God at the center and all that we truly gain and bring for His glory versus having man's thoughts at the center of our thinking.
Umm, let me just say that I said yesterday, I want to say it again too, though. This is, this is something that it's subject having a fear of man, at least for myself and I truly believe for probably everybody in the room. It's just so sneaky. It's everywhere. It's it, it just seeps into our thinking so naturally that it's something that we need to be aware of, not to look at the negative side of things, but just to be aware of, to allow the Lord to work on, to work it out on us. Let me give you an example.
I left, uh, earlier this afternoon and, umm, went to grab these poster boards in Carrollton and as I was driving there on the way, I saw a, uh, beautiful little covered bridge. Uh, that'd be nice to take a picture of. I have a camera on the back seat. When I'm coming back, I'll take a picture of it. So I get coming back to the picture of I'd even looked ahead of time. Let's see, is there a good place to park there? Looks like there's a good place to park. So gotta pull into the parking space and I looked ahead carefully. I glanced around. Doesn't say no parking, doesn't look like it's somebody's driveway. Looks like a nice little public parking strip. I pull in. There's a guy on a motorcycle shop.
He's up the hill looking down, trying to figure out what's the first thought that probably went through my head. Of course, I don't have the fear of man, right? So I immediately going through the checklist making sure, am I, am I OK? What's he thinking? Is this all right? Am I, am I allowed to be here? The first thought is it's, it's good to be thoughtful of others, right? In a positive sense, it's good to be thoughtful of others for the Lord's sake, for his glory and so on. But I was worried what he thought of me.
So that's the kind of thing it just seeps into our thinking so, so easily, umm, that it's not to become introspective. We'll look at examples in the word of God of how we lose out, but how we can grow and how God works on us and helping us to grow in those areas. One more thing on reputation before we get going.
00:05:02
Can anybody here give me a verse in the word of God that proves conclusively beyond the shadow of it out that no matter what you do?
No matter how perfectly you act, you can lose your good reputation, you can lose what man thinks of you.
OK, I'm gonna come. That's how we're gonna finish with that verse. That's Proverbs 2925 ish. Uh, that it shows that the fear of man is completely wrong. In fact, I'll put it down here. Proverbs I think I've ever written down over there. Helped my memory. 2925. Yeah, 2925. I'll add it to the bottom.
This is different when I was thinking of.
Turn to Isaiah 53.
Isaiah 53.
Oh, first four, surely, first four, surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Who's the verse talking about?
Jesus Christ.
These people, in the proper context, are Jews that are waking up to the fact that they crucified their Messiah and they're reflecting back on it and saying.
We thought he was.
We didn't seem him stricken, smitten of God. Let's see, where did it go? I'm sorry again, we did a theme him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. We thought that all those troubles he had was because God wasn't happy with him. Nothing could have been farther from the truth, right but his reputation among the ungodly Jews at the time.
Was of somebody that was under God's judgment because look what's happening to him.
So trying to keep our reputation isn't something we ought to do with man. If we live before the eye of God, we may have a good reputation.
But trying to manage and and massage and and work it out so that people think nicely about us is it's a losing cost. Let me give you a little story to illustrate it.
How many people here, I think there's one or two, ever met a brother from Bolivia called Avellino Chavez? He's with the Lord now. Just got two of us. All right. Got two of us. And then Avelina Chavez. Avelina Chavez was a brother that had the only, well, not the only. There's a gift called the Discerner of Spirit. And of all the people I've ever met, he had a greater measure of that gift than anyone I've ever met. That means just he'd sit down with you, chat with you for 15 minutes, and he knew exactly where you were.
Spiritually, because he had that gift and he would travel around in Bolivia with the different assemblies, he would get to know people. And uh, he came back home one time and he saw a whole bunch of little chickens, a couple dozen little baby chickens in the side yard of his house.
And so he said to his wife, he knew his wife very well, obviously.
Said his wife. Uh, whose chickens are those?
Oh, she said, they're they're my chickens. I bought them. I'm gonna raise them up. We're gonna get eggs and we're gonna get meat. And said, are Are you sure those are your chickens? Oh, yeah, those are my chickens. Yep, they're my chickens. And he said, oh, well, that's fine then You take good care of your chickens. Now, if those were God's chickens, he'd take care of his chickens. But those are your chickens. You take good care of those chickens.
And within about a week, a couple of them drowned. They had heavy rains there. It was the, I think it was the city of Montero. It was in the jungle area. Uh, but they had heavy rains and a couple of chickens drowned. Predator came under the fence and grabbed a couple more of the little ones. Some of them left under the fence themselves. And in less than two months, she had no chickens. They were gone. She was busy taking care of her chickens and they were gone. Her husband said that if there are God's chickens, he'd take care of them.
Uh, it's the same with reputation. You're busy, say, if I'm busy taking care of my reputation, I'm gonna lose it because my focus is on somebody else's thoughts. But if we're busy taking care of God's reputation among others, what they say about them representing Him, we're acting for him, He's at the center of our thoughts and our plans, then he's perfectly well able to take care of all the rest of it. So it's a question of what's in our focus.
Let's look at the first example in Genesis chapter 32.
00:10:08
I am so glad, so thankful.
That's the story of this man is in the Bible. In fact, I noticed recently in reading through, uh, the book of Genesis that his story spans a longer range of chapters than anybody else in the book. Every wonderful things about Abraham. There's lots about Abraham, but Genesis 32 Covers the story of.
Jacob.
Part of the story of Jacob and Jacob starts, if you go from the first chapter, the last chapter is mentioned. There is a bigger range of chapters about Jacob, and I didn't count verses and all that to describe his life and just about anybody else. I'm afraid for some of us, at least, our lives match a little more carefully, a little more closely with Jacobs than with some of the others in the book, like Abraham or Joseph. But I want to notice some things and some of the things that Joseph, I'm sorry, Jacob lost.
We'll just read a few verses here.
Uh, maybe you need a little context, Jacob.
Why did he leave home?
We'll spend more on this example than any of the others. Why did Jacob leave home?
Favor's brother.
He uh.
Told a lie, acted a lie, lived a lie, participated with mom and a lie, Got what he was looking for and made his brother angry, right? And so he left home, and on his way out the door, the Lord spoke to him.
In the book of Genesis, when's the next time he gets spoken to by the Lord, you know?
20 years later when it's time to come home.
20 years later as the next time God speaks to Jacob as recorded in the book, and he's ready to come home and he's coming home and he's obviously thinking about his brother. And so verse three, Genesis 32, verse 3, Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau's brother unto the land of Seer, the country of Edom. And the messengers come back in verse six, return to Jacob saying, we came to thy brother. He saw and also.
He cometh to meet thee, and 400 men with him.
Take a pad is I'll call them four wives, wives and concubines. Here there's four wives. He had 11 Kids.
What's the oldest of his kids at most?
Yep, Ruben's the oldest. Any idea how old Reuben was?
This is this is simple math. I I like to do this when I'm looking at. I like to be able to see in the context of scripture who these people were, how old they were, and put them in their relation. It just helps to.
Recognize these are real people. It's been there 20 years. How long did it take before his first wife, Leah? 7? So how? The oldest of his eleven kids.
OK, 12 because she got married after seven. If she waited nine months, we'll say they're 12:00-ish. He's got eleven of them. Phantom is not born yet, so he has a 12 year old. If you're going to put one per year, he's got a 12 year old, 11 year old, 10 year old, 9 year old, 8 year old, 7 year old, 6 year old. He's got a little family, right?
His oldest is 12. There's eleven of them, four wives, some servants and all kinds of cattle.
His brother's coming with what we just read it. 400 men. You know how many men Abraham took when he went to against Cheddar, Leomer and the other 3 kings that were with him? Same book grandpa Abraham took.
318 real close, 318 men, and I don't know, there were some neighbors. Those 318 raised in his own household may have been a little bit bigger, but Jacob lived in tents with Abraham and Isaac says so in Hebrews 11. So here comes my brother Esau. He's a hunter. He's a man of war. I've been afraid of him. I ran away from him and he's coming with 400 men. That's more than my grandpa took to defeat 4 kings. I'll just send my sons out against them all. Let's see, the 12 year old will put him in. No, it's not going to work very well, right?
The circumstances, to the eye look pretty bad. Let's look at two other verses. Turn back to Genesis, the beginning of the story of Jacob. Genesis is at 20.
00:15:08
27.
No, I'm gonna go back a little bit earlier. Uh, Genesis 25.
Genesis 25 Before Jacob is born, listen to what God says. Verse 23 And the Lord said unto her, that is, to his mother Rebecca, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy mouth, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. And other days to be delivered were fulfilled, and so on.
Before Jacob was born, what did God say?
Was Esau going to get to kill him?
No, the older is going to serve the younger. Has it happened yet? No. When he meets these 400 men, God says there's no way you're going to die.
He's going to serve you.
Now, how fresh do you think that promise would be in his heart and mind when he hears about these 400 men coming? I'm very fresh, right? But that's what God said. Let's back up just a chapter from Genesis 32. So go back. I think it's Genesis 31. This is when he gets called back and.
Umm.
Verse Genesis 31 Verse.
13.
I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointed the pillar, That's when he was leaving the land the first time, and he received a promise from God directly. And where thou vowest avow unto me, now arise, get thee out from this land and return unto the land of thy kindred when he was leaving. I guess we need to back up to that promise too. Give the full context. When he was leaving the land, Umm, God says to him verse 15 of chapter 28, and this is 28, verse 15.
Or even more Umm, we'll read from verse 13.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou lieth to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be at the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad, to the West and the east, into the north and to the South, and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee. We'll pause right there.
That's what God said to Jacob 20 years before. Now he just finished saying go back. So before he's born, God says your older brother will serve you 20 years before God says, I will be with thee and give them this huge and beautiful promise and we won't have time. There was nothing in it that depended on Jacob. Jacob immediately made a covenant with God afterwards, but God's promise was God's promise. Now God says go back. So put yourself there.
The promise before you're born, Promise 20 years ago and fresh instruction from God to go back.
But in front of you, there's a message. Your brother's coming with 400 men of war. Who do you listen to?
OK. So we haven't been physically in that circumstance.
Umm, jumping and going back to last this morning when Greg was speaking, somebody comes to you and says, so what's wrong with my lifestyle?
OK, the appropriate response will get, I'm sure, much more on tomorrow. But all I'm saying is in that circumstance, there's a right way to respond, there's a right spirit to respond and so on. But I can sit there and think what you can think of me if I say this, What's he going to think of me if I say that? Or I can say, what would God want me to say?
Do I have God's word on it? Can I say it in God's way? There's a simple practical circumstance where we're often caught in between. What's he gonna think of me and what does God think of the matter?
So here's what Esau does. Tell me if you recognize this behavior. Here's what Esau does.
00:20:03
He Chapter 32.
For seven then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, and two bands, and said, If he thought, come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.
Come to the next chapter, we're gonna jump back to chapter 32, but move forward briefly to no, it's further down in this chapter. Sorry. Further down in chapter 32 it says verse 13. Any logs there that same night and took of that which came to his hand, a present for Esau, his brother. 200 she goats and 20 he goats, 200 ewes and 20 Rams, 30 milk camels with their Colts, 40 kind and 10 bowls, 20 shiases and 10 foals. And they delivered them into the hand of his servants. Every drove by themselves and said unto his servants, Passover before me and put a space betwixt drove and drove and gives careful instructions to his herders.
So what's he do?
Do you think somebody is mad at you?
You figure out how to deal with the situation, right? So Jacob does it up, right? He has one huge gift, send somebody up front with that huge gift. Then he sends another huge gift so that Esau can see the first one and be impressed, right? And then he can receive the second one and be impressed, and the third one and the 4th one and the fifth one.
How many people have ever done something like that?
Wow.
Only a few of us.
Umm.
I think that just simply means I haven't explained it well enough yet.
Because if I explain it properly, I think we'd be at least at 80% here. Umm.
OK.
So you think your mom or your dad are not very happy with you and you would like to change that circumstance, not because they have a legitimate reason, etcetera, etcetera. It's just because it's a little uncomfortable for you on those circumstances. So maybe for the first time ever on after for the first time in a month on ask you get busy doing the dishes.
How many have done something on that order? Uh, OK, I've explained it a little better. Uh, that's what Esau is doing on a grand scale because Esau has gotten his brain. I'm sorry, that's what Jacob is doing on a grand scale because he, he, Jacob has in his brain Esau, his brother. And all he can see is Esau and what Esau can do and what he saw is like, and what he saw has. So he's going to take what he has and make sure that it comes out OK for him.
Oh, in between.
He did this in between, umm, that night.
Let's see.
Oh yes, in between verse 9, Jacob said, Oh God, and my father Abraham and God and my father Isaac the Lord, which saith unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. I'm not worthy at least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I Passover this Jordan, and now I become two bands. Well, you know what, I'm thankful, Jacob prayed. And no matter what we are and where we are in this spectrum of fearing what people think or what God thinks.
Jacob prayed.
And then Jacob got real creative and got real busy and was very anxious, says it said it in verse 7, Greatly afraid and distressed.
Ever been greatly afraid and distressed about people things?
How many have been greatly afraid and distressed about people things? Yeah.
I sure have.
In it is a sense of our inability to meet the circumstances, and probably not a very good sense of God's ability to meet them.
That's Jacob at this moment.
But I want to show you something here that I think is Absolutely Fabulous. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I was reading in this last week. At the end of this chapter 32, it says Jacob wrestles with the Angel, right? I'm gonna assume we all know the story. You know, it's time to go through it. And so we're just going to read the conclusion.
He wrestles with the Angel and verse 25 and when he saw that he prevailed not against them. That is, the Angel prevailed not against him, meaning Jacob. He, the Angel touched the hollow of his Jacob's thigh. The hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. Here's what I enjoyed with that.
00:25:20
Angel represents God. He's wrestling with Jacob, says the Angel wrestled with Jacob, right? Wasn't Jacob wrestling with the Angel in the prior verse? God wrestles with him and God's working with you and God's working with me in our life, and we're just not getting it. Or maybe we get a little bit because Jacob prayed, right?
One touch of the angel's finger and what happened with Jacob?
Just.
If I went out of joint, I think the thigh muscle, the thought is if you're going to lift the heavy weight and I can use your tongue and I can do an arm curl, you're not going to do a bench press. The heaviest weight to lift with your legs, right? The thigh muscle is your biggest leg muscle, right? Are the muscles in the thigh together. Taken together, they're the most powerful natural strength you have. One touch of the power of God can take it away like that.
When God was wrestling with Jacob, it wasn't that Jacob was a very fit herdsman and he could handle this Angel. That's not the thought at all. The thought is God wasn't using his power to squash him.
He was working with him in grace.
And God doesn't use his power to squash us when we're not getting his lesson. And we're slow to learn to not look to other people to decide about whether this is right or not, but to look to God. He doesn't.
See that you're feeling was sitting down on a rock or outside during your quiet meditation time? How many of you had a little bug start to wander across your page or your leg or your OK, I won't ask you what you did, but if you took your power and took to your finger and you went like that and launched it, that was it for the bug, right?
If God were to take his power because you or I weren't getting the lesson He's trying to teach and they were used as power, that ours would be gone like that. But God wrestles with us in grace.
To produce the end that He wants. And if the Lord is working with you in your life, as He is with me in my life on any of these things, let's be thankful to Him that His power is there to give us maybe just enough shake up, just enough trouble to bring out the lesson He wants to bring out, but not to destroy us.
If they are to wrestle with us in grace, well, the first thing that we lose, and there's so much more in the life of Jacob, I would love to keep going.
Umm, but I want to move on here. The first thing we lose is you could look at a lot of different ways, but I'll read one more verse, maybe to make the point in the next chapter. Verse three, Genesis 33, verse 3, This is Jacob. He passed over before them and vowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother.
I will say the first thing we lose, although you could look at a lot of different things.
Check was.
A man who had a promise from God.
And his grandpa Abraham, we read last night. What did his grandpa Abraham do?
Remember where he was last night when we read that verse in Genesis 17, Genesis 17, three. He was on his face before God, listening to what God had to say.
Jacob's on his face seven times. You can imagine there's Esau by the door. I don't think I'll go through the full routine. Here comes.
Uh, Jacob toward Esau at the door, and he's down on his face. Oh, giving Esau the honor that he can do. And he moves forward a few steps and he does it again, and he does it again and does it again. If you're standing there watching, who's the one ruling over who?
God says Jacob's going to rule over Esau. Jacob says I'm going to be able to survive this particular moment. I gotta get this done right. And he's seven times on his face approaching Esau. Why? Because he's on his face before man. Abraham was on his face before God, and that's the difference. He lost the dignity that he had in God. Or we would say for ourselves as Christians, what we have in Christ is something that goes far above and beyond.
00:30:09
Uh, what we can get from man, but we lose it in a practical appreciation sense when we get on our face before man.
There's 1000 ways in which we can do that. I want you to pause for a moment.
And write down on a piece of paper you have.
Jacob had promised it got strengthened and he was told to go home. So I had three words from God.
Write down what promises, or just a couple of them, you have from God.
There's tons of them in the Word of God. What has God promised to you? And we'll write a few of them down. What does God promised to you?
OK, we can't possibly get an exhaustive list, but why don't you just call out a few of the things that God has promised?
I saw lots of things written down, so don't be shy.
Eternal life, Can you lose it?
God gives eternal life in His Son. It's not even something that He hands to us to put in our pocket and hang on to. We can't hang on to the stuff that's ours, but He gives it to us in Christ. It's ours. We can't lose. It comes from God. We might fear losing our life, physical life from man, but even that really is ultimately in God's hands. OK, something else.
He'll never leave us. Never been afraid of losing a friend if you said or did something that was honoring to the Lord but according to our mental calculations was likely to offend a friend.
I've certainly had that fear. Maybe nobody else here has. I've certainly had the fear of wanting to hide looking a certain way. And you know what, let me just pop in with this one because I think I can't give you a verse for this. I was trying to think one this afternoon, uh, for a little bit. Maybe somebody can give me a verse after so that I take this with a grain of salt. Look it up in the word of God. This is my observation.
Very, very often. I won't say always, when God wants to encourage a child, He makes it really easy on him.
And if you're taking your first step of faith or the second step of faith, I'd say it's pretty likely the Lord is going to be very easy on you. Let me give you a very brief, uh, example from our recent trip. We're on our way. We stopped at a Super 8 on our way to North Carolina, got up in the morning, Paul and I went down to the breakfast room area and, umm, got some food and they was back in the room. It was time to give thanks for the food. So I was standing, I was going to go back, pick something up.
Just held Paul's hand asked him if you want to give thanks He said yes and so he did. He gave thanks. There's a man that was standing across the breakfast room who heard Paul giving thanks for the food and he immediately comes hustling over with this man going to say Charleston, WV never been here before. What I like, I don't know what's he going to say at much time to think about it. The plot goes through my mind like that. He comes over. Oh, that's so good to see. Uh, well, you know, it's it's nice to talk to. Oh no, I'm talking about children that are speaking to the to the Lord. That's so important that he jumped into Ezekiel 36 and he took off and I didn't have to say a whole lot more.
He was delighted with some tiny little representation or something that showed to him someone who had a certain fear of God. You know those first little steps for a child? If you're going to teach a kid how to do hurdles, are you going to set them at the whatever the Olympic height is never going to do that. When you play basketball the first time you set the hoop at 10 feet for a 5 year old, No way. You think God sets the hoop at the 10 footer for the.
1St grade student. I can't give you a verse for it. I suspect there's a principle in there. But in my observation, very, very often the Lord helps, puts training wheels on the bike as we walk this road, as we walk that path. So I will never leave the universe for safety. We might have the fear of it, but if we act in the fear of God, we could lose the friend.
But we can't lose our heavenly friend. How about a couple more?
Absolutely no question about it. And when we recognize it, we're willing to take His plan and not our own twisting of that one more.
00:35:02
Hope for the future absolutely we have uh, help me quote the verse uh, we are currently remember the end of it. We are of all men most miserable. Paul says it in first Corinthians 15 right First part of the verse says.
Uh, pardon.
So our hope goes beyond this world and it's certain. And Chris, I think.
OK, problem solved. Spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We have an inheritance and so on. We have promises that if we're enjoying.
We're not going to be nearly as concerned. I have something here I can't possibly lose, and it's far better than what I'm offered over here. All right, we'll go quickly through maybe three other examples. Those are what Jacob the main one on my mind. Let's turn to another one before we do.
Let me illustrate this next one that uh.
Fear has its proper uses.
Umm, you're driving on the two lane roads out here, they twist and they curve and you go around 1 curve and you see somebody coming towards you in your lane. Uh, it's nice to be afraid and the, the effect of that fear to swerve and break and pull off if you can on the shoulder and whatever may help to avoid an accident. We're talking about different kind of fear that we're going to turn to. And I just want to say that most fear is irrational. I hope you remember that this is a true story as I understand it.
Uh, there was a man driving a pickup truck.
In Spain.
And he had a coffin in the back end of his pickup. It was a farmer by the side of the road. And I don't know on the part of the story whether the guy slowed down for a stop sign, the farmer hopped in, or whether he let the guy get in. I know in South America, if you've got to pick up and somebody's on the side of the road, it's a revenue opportunity. The same way in Malawi, yes, No, Certainly true in Ecuador and in Peru and so on. If you have a pick up and you're going somewhere, you can pay for your gas by slowing down for anybody on the side of the roads. I don't know how it came to be.
Farmer hops in the back end and they continue on down the road. And this, by the way, the story long predated the Internet. I didn't get it from there. I do trust it. He's driving down. Not OK. That was not properly balanced statement, but I think you know what I mean. UMM continued on down the road and started to rain.
Farmer looked at the coffin. Didn't wanna get wet, opened the lid, got in the coffin.
It comes from a very legitimate source.
Continues on down the road.
There are two more people on the side of the road.
They got OK, you've already figured out how this is going to end. They got in the pick up. They continue on down the road. The sound of the plink plink clink on the top of the coffin stops. So the farmer decides to open the lid and see if it has stopped raining. Opens the lid and both of the others exited the pickup.
One of them died, was killed.
The point is, in that split second, Fear very irrationally told them this is not a normal circumstance, couldn't possibly be a good thing, and I'm out of here.
And one of them died.
Let me just say that if you're not talking about a car coming to you at a high rate of speed, almost all that kind of fear, at least in the context of spiritual things, can be irrational. Fear is not something that should be running the show. But let me give you an example of what happens when we look at other people. Exodus, Perhaps there's a better one, Exodus chapter.
UH-1.
Sorry, Exodus chapter 2.
We'll read from verse 11.
So this chapter 2 and verse 11.
You can't have asked in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian spying in Hebrew one of his brethren, and look this way and that way.
You've probably heard the comment on the verse, but he didn't.
No.
He looked this way and he looked that way, but he didn't thank you. OK, this is the right answer. I was getting a little hands. He didn't look up. He didn't bring God into the circumstance.
00:40:06
Moses's motives, as far as I know, we're right. He had a love and a care for his people, and we can have the right motive in a matter, but we're only looking horizontally at what other people are doing. In this case, is anybody else looking? And he takes his action and here's what it leads to. And.
When he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together. And he said to him, That did the wrong Wherefore smidest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a Prince, and a judge over us, intended thou to kill me as I'll kill it. The Egyptian And Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known. Next verse, Those who's fled from the face of Pharaoh.
Who was he afraid of?
First of all, he's looking around them to see who's watching. Then he's afraid of Pharaoh, because The thing is known. If we've done what's wrong, if we're acting for the eye of man and our reputation, we lose.
These are all lost, right?
This is our piece.
There's a constant fear. When am I going to get caught?
It's gone.
If it's God, we don't have to have that fear. He knows all about it all along. If I'm living before His eye, I don't have to have that fear at all. But if I'm living before the eye of man, if I'm acting that way, if I've sinned and think that I can cover it, I'm going to lose that piece.
And perhaps, I don't know, in the case of Moses is a long time before he got it back. Egypt had a long reach at that time. He fled in the land, the Midian, but Egypt had their spies. They went up prior to this. They were going all the way up into modern day Syria, maybe beyond, and certainly up through the land of Israel. He fled in the land of Midian, but Egypt had their agents. Uh, life hasn't changed a whole lot.
There was a man not that long ago I read about, don't remember the details of the story exactly, but he committed a murder somewhere on the East Coast. 30 years had passed. He was living in California. And sometime within the last year or two, there was a knock at the door. And, uh, he opened the door and there were the police there or the law enforcement of some kind. And they asked him if he was so and so. And he was just flabbergasted. Uh, he was so and so he was caught. He was brought in. I don't even know how the trial went.
But this is the important point, he said, some point in his questioning that he had lived virtually every day wondering when that knock was going to come at the door.
He lived 30 years free, but he lived just about every day of his life waiting for the knock at the door. And I don't know about Moses in the land of Midian. God doesn't say. But when he acted in the fear of man, he lost his peace. And Moses, like Jacob, was restored. God was working in him. Moses had a fabulous and fruitful life. It was all part of God's plan for him. But he was waiting for the knock on the door. When we live in the fear of man, that's the way we're going to live without that peace.
Let's move to the next one and turn the judges 16.
In the interest of time, I'm not going to go through the whole story. Very well known one.
Sampson and Delilah just wanna show you a process right here because this is very important when we live in the fear of man to notice this process and it happens. Umm.
You know the story of Samsung Delilah, who can give me the, uh, 62nd version? Refresh our memories for the one or two that may be a little bit rusty.
Samsung and Delilah in 60 seconds. Thank you.
No.
Thank you, Joanne.
Fantastic.
I'll take a little longer. So for those of you that she said Samson had a secret, Delilah said tell me, tell me, tell me. So he did. That's exactly what happened. Samson went down the woman valley of Sorak, I think it says, and here's what happens. He umm, she's offered money and so on. So in verse 9, Judges 16, verse 9.
Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber.
00:45:02
So she's going to get money from the Philistines right for betraying Sampson and she said unto him, the Philistines be upon thee Samson. They break the width as a thread of toes broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known. The clue he given was in verse 8. Uh that umm brought up to her. I'm sorry inclusion verse seven if they bind me with seven green with that were never dry.
He didn't tell the whole truth, right?
I want you to notice this. He gave up a piece, 1 little piece of his secret. Samson was a Riddle teller, right? Samson told riddles. He told a Riddle earlier at a wedding and it got him in all kinds of trouble because the person at that earlier wedding had, uh, oh, wait, history is repeating itself, isn't it? But he told the Riddle at that wedding and they figured it out and it caused them all kinds of trouble and it caused the Philistines all kinds of trouble. And it was a real mess for the family that was involved. Now we're back in the same situation. He's telling a Riddle. He's with a person he shouldn't be with.
And he gives up a piece of his Riddle. Maybe he knows that. Maybe you didn't. Let's go to the next part. The next one.
And it says verse 11. And he said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak and be as another man telling her at all is giving up the second clue. He's stepping closer to the abyss that he's heading for. Fact, he's been heading for it his whole life. You could read the 1St 3 verses of this chapter. He's a long term problem.
But he's giving up the second piece of the Riddle.
Come to the third.
And uh, verse 13 The lighter said in the Sampson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. He said unto her, If thou weaveest the seven locks in my head with the web, she fastened it with a pen. And so on. He gives up a third piece of his secret, and then he tells the whole thing.
You see the three pieces he's given up.
Give her the number 7.
Gave her the clue that it was unused. He gave her the clue that it was just something to do with his hair, And finally.
Umm.
Verse 15. And she said unto him, How can't thou say, I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? Thus mock me these three times, and have not told me where in nice great strength lieth. And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death. They told her All was hard said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaved, and my strength will go from me.
And I shall become weak and be like any other man. It's seven locks of unused hair.
And now he's told her, You take those from me, I'm going to be like anyone else.
But the part of it that I want to notice tonight is it was a process. It was a process in his life that led to his ruin. And thankfully his hair grew back. We don't have time for the full story, but what he lost slowly, bit by bit was his discernment until he gives up his full circle secret. He had seven unused locks of hair that represented his dependence on God. They gave up that dependence on God.
In exchange for a person who saw vexed him every single day to make money so that he could have his eyes put out and be put in chains.
When we put allow God to be the center of our life that He is, when we allow Him to take that role as Lord, we do gain in every possible way. Not in the immediate instance, maybe not for that minute, maybe not for that hour, that week, that month, that year. But in the long haul, we will fully, absolutely reap the benefit of the fear of God when we live in the fear of man, when we live for what Delilah can give us fit by bit.
By bit we give up more and more and more the secret dependence on God, and we end up, like Samson, losing our eyesight, which is a symbol of our discernment and you know when.
00:50:00
We give that up.
I think there was a hint of that this morning. Really.
When we marinate in the world's culture, when we allow its thoughts to fill our minds bit by bit by bit, we give up God's definitions of things. We give up God's, uh, view of things because we're not being bit by bit filled with God in his view. It's not at the center. It's man in his view that's at the center. A little bit by little bit, we give up the CERN. And we got a brief history lesson on what's happened over the last 150 years as views shift, shift, shift, shift. That didn't happen overnight, did it?
The latest change is rapid, but it didn't happen overnight. It's bit by bit by bit giving up discernment as man and his thoughts get dragged to the center and God and his Word gets shoved to the side.
One more.
Umm in First Samuel 15.
Umm, just try to hit a couple of the highlights very quickly. Very profitable. Read the whole story and meditate on it.
But this is Saul and Samuel, and again, I'll assume that the story is pretty well known, Saul and Samuel. Saul doesn't carry out the instructions that the Lord gave him to do. Samuel comes and finds that they haven't been carried out. Any rebukes saw and they have the conversation recorded in this chapter.
Uh, he's rebuked by Samuel in verse 20. And Saul said unto Samuel, Yeah, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought a gag. The king of the of Amalek and of utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, the sacrifice in the Lord thy God. And Gilgal Samuel answers with the famous verses 22 and 23 and tells Saul that he's rejected verse 24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned.
If I have to transgress the command of the Lord and thy words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore I pray thee, pardon my sin, turn again with me.
A little bit further down and it says.
Uh, Samuel speaking to him verse 29 and also the strength of Israel will not lie or repent for he is not a man that he should repent. Then he said, meaning Saul, I have sinned yet honor me now, I pray thee before the elders of my people.
How do you seen these verses?
Who? Saul's.
Umm, who's false heart and vision was set on the God of the people.
People, wasn't it? And these verses, how is that clear?
What did we just read?
I fear the people obey their voice. That's what he said. And then when he says I have sinned yet, honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people.
You know, you use words that involve repentance, but Saul used words. I've sinned. Honor me now before the people.
Really, there was one set of opinions he wanted. He wanted honor before the people. Last chapter of this book, just a couple verses before the end of the chapter, at the end of the book, where is Saul?
His body is hanging on the wall of Bethchan.
We live in the fear of man.
We're not going to be able to maintain that honor either. It's gone. He loses it. David also.
Send.
David also sinned.
Let's read what he wrote. Psalm 51, just the first verse.
00:55:06
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions.
Beautiful about this. David's not talking about the people. David's not even putting himself first. He's not even putting his sin at the top of the verse. What's he putting at the top of the verse?
What's he put there first?
God's mercy and.
Loving kindness.
What David counted on was it that he got the wording right to his confession.
What they've had counted on or looked for was not honor me now before the elders of my people. What David counted on was the heart and mercy of God. David had back clearly in his sights what he had lost when he sinned with Bathsheba and killed Uriah. He had back clearly in his sights. God at the center, God's heart, God's purposes for him. God's mercy is back, clearly at the center and doesn't hide A sin.
He confesses his sin, but he has God in God's heart first.
And foremost, and there's not a word about what the people think.
So we'll finish with that verse we have at the bottom, Proverbs 2925. I think it summarizes it nicely. Uh, there's more to the verse.
Than we've quoted Proverbs 2925.
The fear of man bringeth a snare.
But.
Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Really my desire has been with these yesterday and today isn't to really teach you anything brand new, but to encourage you and give some examples from the word of God. And really as much as anything, for my own sake, to be reminded that when God is at the center of our thoughts, we never do anything again may not look that way immediately. And we've tried to look at a lot of examples where Saul.
Between his sin and hanging his body on the walls of Becham, there's a lot of ears in there.
There's a lot of years when he's throwing a javelin at David, when he's sitting at the royal banquet table and David's in The Cave.
It's not necessarily going to look like it's working perfectly if God's at the center. I'm not saying that put God at the center in your life will be simple and easy, and that is not what the scriptural examples show.
But God at the center brings gain absolutely in the long haul, and putting man in his thoughts in the center brings destruction every single time. In the long haul, the fear of man bringeth a snare. It's a snare because it's not easy to see it first. It looks like the right thing to do.
But but.
It says whoso puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe.
Who ended his days on the throne, it was David. Who ended his days on the wall of Beth Shan, it was Saul. Let's ask the Lord for his help. Dear Lordissa, we just asked for each one of us that we would learn of thee that daily habit, and we would have the faith to walk in it, to have thee at the center of our thoughts. And I love thy mercies, Thy goodness, my purposes for us. And that we wouldn't allow the the thought of man.
And the fear of the man, too.
Dominate our life, just ask for Thy help in in this matter and pray in Thy name or Jesus.