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Be Faithfully Fearless
15 Plays9 days ago
Judges 4:1-24
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Transcript
A Dream of Diamonds and Misunderstanding
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One morning, a husband and wife were having coffee and the wife said to her husband, Honey, last night I had a dream. And in that dream, it was my birthday. And I was standing in front of the mirror and I had brand new diamond earrings on and a brand new diamond necklace.
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Honey, what do you think that dream means?
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The husband, responding quickly on his feet, said, Well, I guess you're just going to have to wait until your birthday to see. Sure enough, couple weeks pass. It's the wife's birthday and she comes downstairs to get coffee and there next to the coffee machine she sees a birthday present.
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So she anxiously runs over and tears open the packaging only to discover a book entitled How to Interpret Your Dreams.
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Ladies, sometimes us men just don't get it.
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Even when the answer is staring us right in the face, sometimes we just don't get it.
Understanding God's Promises
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Brothers and sisters, fellow Christians, church family, sometimes we just don't get it.
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Even when it's right there in front of our face. How do I know, you ask? Well, we simply need to turn to the very first verse of our passage this morning. Judges chapter 4. Verse 1 starts this way, after Ehud's death, look with me, the Israelites again did evil in the Lord's sight.
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They simply just didn't get it. And 2,000 years later, we sit here in these pews and many of us, we still don't get it. Do you know there's over 7,000 promises of God in the Bible made to humanity? 7,000.
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seven thousand Over 3,000 of those are blessings directly to believers, just like you and I, waiting for you and I to take them and the blessing that comes with those. but Why don't we do that more often than we should?
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Why don't we have this fearless faith and obedience to take what God has promised you and I I feel like quite often what we end up doing is we leave it on the table.
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Because we're not bold, we don't step out in faith even though it's right there in front of us, telling us exactly in black and white what God has promised.
Claiming God's Promises with Faith
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How do we do that today? How do we step out in faith? How do we have fearless faith?
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and trusting God's promises. the Brothers and sisters, this is what we're going to look at today in in Judges chapter 4. Judges chapter 4, I love this story. it's If you'll see in your outline that I provided, hopefully you grabbed one of these in your bulletin.
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In the structure there on the left, this section is crafted in just beautiful ways. it's It's fantastic. I hope I highlighted it there. You'll see some colors on that section that I'm going to talk about in just a few moments.
The Cycle of Sin and Deliverance
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This, unfortunately, starts just like chapter 2 started, just like chapter 3 started, and now we're chapter 4. And it says, once again, we see this soared, S-O-R-D cycle start all over again.
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By the way, someone who watches our sermons online sent me a text this past week. just with an encouraging message and said, I really love the study of judges so far. Keep up the good work. And in this picture this person took, it was a picture of their Bible and a notebook that was underneath it with some handwritten notes. And down the column it had S-O-R-D.
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And I thought, how encouraging is that? Somebody is getting it. They're getting it. It does my heart good to see God's people studying God's word. Just like when we all studied the Old Testament books.
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I taught you 512, 5-5-12. So you still have in your memory. Even if you wanted to forget that, you wouldn't be able to forget that now. It's drilled in. Brothers sisters, when you get to the book of Judges, the very first thing I hope that pops into your mind is SORD.
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S-O-R-D. Sin, oppression, repentance, sin. deliverance This is the cycle that we see starting over. And the Israelites start right here in verse 1. says that they have continued du to do evil in the sight of the Lord.
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And I put down in my notes, just aside, they hate they ain't learned a whole lot.
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By the way, when I say that about the Israelites, I'm really saying that about you and I'm saying that about me as well. Sometimes we just don't get it. Sometimes it takes us a while to learn it.
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says says here verse 2, Yahweh sells them into the hand. You'll notice this hand motif we talked about over the last couple of weeks. It's popping back up here again. Matter of fact, it's in the color red in the structure that you see here.
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says because of their evil, Yahweh sells them into the hand of Jabin, the Canaanite king. This should sound familiar. The selling off, the giving off of God's people into the hand of the enemy.
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He's doing something with this repeating. he's He's letting you know this is a pattern and we need to watch it. They continue to sin. They're given over into the hand of the enemy, enemy which the author is so keen to let us know it's a Canaanite king.
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Why is he so keen in letting us know that? Because these are the very people they were commanded to run out of the land and destroy. And yet, because they're left, now this king is routing them and running over them and oppressing them so much so that verse 3 says what?
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Cicero, who had 900 iron chariots, he ruthlessly oppressed the Israelites, y'all, for 20 years.
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20 years of oppression. And then, it says at the end of verse 3, then the people cried out.
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He allows them, if you want to use that term, to be oppressed. God does of his own people. To draw them back to himself.
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To cry out in repentance. Lord, we can't do this on our own. Lord, we've strayed from the path. Please, will you extend your hand back to us today?
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Brothers and sisters, it's the same pattern God uses with you and I today still. He allows us to reap the consequences of sin for a period of time. And I put in my notes, I hope it's not 20 years for you.
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But you might be sitting here this morning in a season of judgment and desperation. Experiencing the consequences of past sin. That might be you today.
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If that is you today, God wants you to know it's time to cry out. You can't do it on your own. Matter of fact, he didn't design you to do it on your own. He wants you to come to the end of yourself to realize you can't do it, that you need him, that you're in desperation.
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And if you would simply repent, he is waiting with open arms, brothers and sisters, to welcome you back. Now then, we have the sin, we have the oppression, we have the crying out, the repentance. What about our D for deliverer?
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On the past two accounts, you'll remember in chapter 2 and in chapter 3, when we got to the part of deliverer, we saw in Scripture this phrase being used.
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The Lord raised up a rescuer or a judge or a deliverer to save people. We saw that with Othniel, then we saw that with Ehud, and to a certain extent we see that with Shamgar. Now, today's message, today's chapter 4, is different.
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It takes a deviation. We don't see this word, this phrase, the Lord raised up a rescuer. And the author doing something to catch our attention.
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He's saying it's the same pattern, but it's a little bit different. How is it different?
Deborah's Leadership and Victory
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Well, look with me at verse 4. Verse 4 in the New Living Translation, I'm going to read it, but I'm going let you know what it says in in the Hebrew.
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Verse 4 says, Deborah, the wife of Lapidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. In the Hebrew, it starts with Deborah, and then immediately goes to prophetess.
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goes from prophetess to her family origin, that she's a wife of this family, Lapidoth. The author's doing something. He's saying, folks, this is not the same pattern that we saw before.
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We don't see Othniel, the son of Canas. We don't see Ehu, the son of Gerah. Instead, we see Deborah, a woman, And then we see the service to the Lord and then we see her family.
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The author telling us, friends, something is definitely off in this picture. Robert Crism, in his commentary of judges, says this. He has this this very pointed question.
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Why is there a woman judging right now? Where are all the men? Where are all the qualified men to pick up this task that was typically male? Had all the Caleb's and the Othniel's and the Yehud's, have they all disappeared?
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He goes on to say, while the text does not explicitly condemn this state of affairs, the author is doing something to let you know the situation is less than ideal. And he points out, under Caleb, the oppression was eight years.
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Under Ehud, it was 18 years. And now it says, brothers sisters, they're oppressed for 20 years. right You can see it's going from bad to worse.
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Thankfully, though, we have Deborah who stands in the gap. She's the female judge. Matter of fact, it says all of Israelites go to her for judgment, verse 5.
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But then God brings a man on the picture. Barak, verse 6, look with me, verse 6. Barak, son of Abinoam. And Deborah tells Barak, the Lord commands you, now here's the command.
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Barak, go out, get 10,000 warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun at Mount Tabor, and I will call out Sisera, commander of Jabin's army, along with the chariots and the warriors to the Keshon River.
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There I will give you, and everybody say it, victory over him. This, my brothers and sisters, is the promise.
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Deborah is the vehicle. She is the mechanism. She is the means by which she has taken the prophecy of God to tell Barak, go into battle, take these warriors.
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I will call Sisera out and you will have victory over him. And what does Barak say?
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Yes, Lord, I can't wait. No, he doesn't say that. I wish he said that, but I don't think it would be a very good teachable lesson. Look at verse 8. This is how Barak responds to Deborah.
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I will go, but only if you go with me.
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And you just want to hear in the background music. wa wamp want wamp
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It was his chance to step out boldly. Yes, Lord, I hear if I simply go out with these 10,000 warriors, you're going to give me victory. Yes, in the natural 900 chariots, it's it probably really scary to go against.
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But he says, know in certain terms, I got you. You just have to put your faith and trust in me. Follow me, trust me, and I will give you that victory.
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All you have to do is, verse 15 says, get up. Get ready. Look at verse 14. This word, the New Living Translation says, get get ready.
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This is really, arise. This is the same word that Jesus calls out to Lazarus in the tomb. Arise. Get up. It's time to go to work. Go out. The Lord has given you this victory over, sister. of The Lord is going to march ahead of you.
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The promise is made. God has gone before you. All you simply need to do is step up and take hold. Take hold of that promise by faith Now put it here, church for family, how many times have have we been in this situation?
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How many times have we been confronted with a promise of God and all that it takes is a as a moment of bold faith, a bold initiative on our part to step out and believe? How many times have we not taken that step?
00:13:31
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I put here, i think we look at real world problems with real world goggles. Let me explain that. I think oftentimes what we do is we look at the 900 iron chariots and we go world in a worldly view with worldly goggles. That seems impossible.
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But if you put on the spiritual goggles, God says, I've already given you that victory. doesn't matter that there's 900 chariots. I've already given you that victory. Just trust me and step out.
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But we look at things in a very worldly manner sometimes.
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He doesn't say, if you will step out, I will give you victory. He says, that victory has already been given to you. Do you realize that? That victory has already been given to Barak.
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Barak just has to reach out take it. Everybody say victory. If you're taking notes, you might want to write down victory in the column. Look with me here in verse 15.
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When we don't step out in bold faith, what happens? Verse 15 to 16 says, when Barak attacked the Lord through Sisera and all his chariots and warriors into a panic.
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Sisera leaped down from his chariot and escaped on foot and then Barak chased the chariots and the enemies all the way to Harasheth Haggaiim. Killing all of Sisera's warriors.
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By the way, not one single person was left alive. Complete victory. Total victory. This is what this picture is. But do you say, wait a second, pastor, I've read my Bible, I know this story.
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Sisera got away. Sisera jumped down and he and the chase started happening on foot. Well, before you're quick to judge that, understand exactly what happens to Sisera here.
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Verse 21, look with me.
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Sisera is in the the tent here of Jael, by the way. Jael is a female priest. Sisera fell asleep, verse 21, says from exhaustion. No doubt he was running all this time and he's tired and he falls asleep. And Jael quietly crept up to him with a hammer and a tent peg in her hand.
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And then she drove that tent peg through his temple and into the ground and so he died. Yikes. Right? Gory detail.
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Total victory. Not only do they finish off the army, they finish off the army's leader. Dead. tap Peg through the head.
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But notice, brothers and sisters, who doesn't get the blessing from this? Who doesn't get the blessing? Barak doesn't get the blessing. How do I know that? Well, you simply need to go in and look here.
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Verse 1. Well, let's look down to verse 23. We see exactly who gets the the blessing. It says, on that day Israel saw, right? This means that they experienced God's defeat of Jabin.
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God was the one. He was the initiator. He's the one with the promise. He's the one who's capable of fulfilling the promise. He's the one who gives us the means to accomplish that promise. He's the one who gets the glory for that victory.
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Deborah didn't get the glory. Jael didn't get the glory. Barak definitely didn't get the glory. God received the glory, but Barak didn't receive the blessing.
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Verse 9, look, Deborah tells Barak, even before going into battle, if you want to go this way, I'll go with you, but because of the lack of your faith, because of the lack of your bold initiative, you will receive no honor in this venture.
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For the Lord's victory over Sisera will be handed over to a woman. It's interesting this change between women and men in this verse, right? Before we had a man who was a judge and now we have a woman who is a judge.
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they were given The command was given to a man to go out and and be the the leader in the victory. But he doesn't doesn't step out boldly. Instead that's given to a woman in Jael.
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It's a lot of flip-flopping back and forth between men and women. But the Lord did get all the glory because it was the Lord's victory. And he used a woman, not a man, to accomplish this victory.
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And all the women are saying, Amen.
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What do we do with this passage today? If the mandate is that we are to trust the promises of God, how do we do that?
Anchoring in God's Word and Community
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Today, not 2,000 years ago, today, how do we stand firm on God's promises?
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With courage and peace, even when you see the 900 iron chariots sitting outside waiting for you.
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Well, our first way is to anchor ourselves in God's word. Why is that important? Well, I think we talked about that in Bible study class. Brother West did a great job, by the way, again.
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Loved sitting under his teaching.
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You know, we often forget sometimes what God's Word has told us and the promise that God's Word provides for us because we're not in God's Word.
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But what we do is we listen to all these other people, commentators and radio hosts and bloggers and you name it, and instead of just going to God's Word.
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we should We should be anchored. in God's Word. We should be studying God's Word. We should be meditating on God's Word. We should be looking at the promises in Scripture and writing them down. Speaking them aloud to ourselves.
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And you think, Pastor, i will never catch you will never catch me speaking to myself out loud. Well, you'd be surprised, brothers and sisters, when you're in the muck and you see the iron chariots right outside the door, you'd be surprised what a good talking to yourself will do.
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Reminding yourself what God's promises are. Speaking them aloud, praying over them. putting on our spiritual goggles, because you can't put on the spiritual goggles and see a worldly problem if you're not in God's Word.
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It's funny how if you journal, you write down, I know, I hear you, I hear the audible gasp out there, the pastor is always about the journaling. Let me tell you what, those who journal get it, and you know who I'm talking about.
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There's something about, if you want to remember or memorize, there's something about writing it down.
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helps you remember and recall. Write down the fears that you have. Be completely gone as God already knows. Hey, I'm worried about my job. I'm worried about my boss. I'm worried about my marriage.
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I'm worried about my grown kids and their salvation. right Write down those fears and then go back and look up what God's Word says about each one of those situations. If you're going to take notes, here's a couple of passages to write down and look this week.
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Isaiah 41.10. Write that one down. forty one ten isaiah forty one ten Romans 8.28. Everybody knows Romans 8.28. Go back, read it this week.
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Philippians 4.19.
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Second, so first we anchor ourselves in God's Word. Second is we surround ourselves with God's people. We surround ourselves with faith-filled voices. Alistair Begg says this, he said, fear grows in isolation, but faith grows in community.
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You know that? when you're When you're on an island by yourself and brothers sisters, this is why we stress it's so important to come to church, to be in community, to come to a Bible study class, so that we can hear the needs and the desires from other people, and in community we can kind of be our own accountability partners.
00:21:31
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It's so that when we start getting off track and we start having all these crazy fears about all these real world problems, our brothers and sisters can say, hold on a second. What does God's word say? Remember this?
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Hey, let's look at it together. And it provides a certain level of comfort, brothers sisters, when you have one or two or three or five ladies in your Bible study class that are all confirming the same thing. There's no reason to be afraid of that boss that that you're under right now.
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God has that taken that situation already taken care of. Matter of fact, you already have victory in that situation.
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If you're not in a prayer group or a Bible study class, get some type of accountability partner. Somebody that you can bounce ideas off of. I've got a few of these people, couple of you in this church that I meet with on a semi-regular basis and we just bounce ideas off each other.
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So that I think to myself, man, am I going off on a tangent? No, I have a brother or sister. Say, no, you're right in that area.
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All right, third
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Not only do we anchor ourselves in God's word, we surround ourselves with God's people, but we remember His faithfulness. I can't stress this one enough, and I know I'm going to circle back around to journaling again. You're getting two doses of journaling today.
00:22:48
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It's that important. Remember in times past... When you've faced a real-world struggle and God has provided for you, He has provided victory for you in that situation, what I do is I write down normally my fear.
00:23:04
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Lord, this is what I fear. This is what your word says. This is what I'm praying for. And in the final column, when God actually provides the solution, and it may not be immediate, friends. Sometimes I go back years, and then I fill it in right there.
00:23:18
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That's how God answered that prayer for me. So that the next time a problem comes up, I don't have to go back. I can simply go back, oh yeah, God was faithful that time. Oh yeah, he gave me victory in that moment.
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Oh yeah, he brought Frank and John and Bob all around me at that time. Oh yeah, I remember that. God's so faithful.
00:23:46
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I'll just end with this. And I didn't come up with this, but I think it's worth writing down if you want to put something as a summary statement for this. Faithful, fearless living.
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Faithful, fearless living equals knowing God's promises, trusting His character, stepping out in faith. Once again, faithful, fearless living. Knowing God's promise, trusting His character,
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acting out in obedience or in faith. Brothers and sisters, it takes a step of faith on our part.
00:24:24
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May we be a people this morning who get it, who remembers the promise, who remembers the answered prayers, who trusts in His character and who courageously step forward in obedience. And all God's people said,