No Fear
With basically, the songwriter sharing his response to just overwhelming circumstances going on in his life. Yeah, he says you might think that I'd be afraid Running Scared with the shake and Faith but the God I know says it ain't over. The God, I know is going to make a way.
You know, when he shared this song for the first time on his Facebook profile, he commented about it that, you know, his Hope was for this song. That Christians would grab hold of that fact that they haven't been given a spirit of fear that, you know, fear is not what is over your life? That's not, what is in control of your life, God is of your life, he is the one in control.
And you know that reflects the words of 2nd, Timothy 1:7. You know. A verse that reminds us that that spirit of fear is not a part of God's work within us. That verse reads for God, has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity but of power love and self-discipline. You know, the emphasize has that God and Powers all believers to have courage to be able to love the unlovable and to have sound judgment rather than a spirit of fear.
This verse encourages Believers to embrace the strength and wisdom that the Holy Spirit provides. And we know that when you become a child of God and when you enter into that relationship and you are baptized into your face that the Holy Spirit comes. And if the holy spirit is within you, you are not meant to have that spirit of fear. Instead a spirit. Of strength and courage. as we look at that verse and break it down a little bit more, you know, looking at that first part for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity
You know, all too often.
I think we let fear control us. yeah, I was thinking a lot about that this week, you know how many times Has fear been what pushed us to make a decision? United, we make the decision. Out of. Well, I don't want this to happen, I don't want that to happen. You know, or did we make the decision based off the idea of? Well, if I do this, this could happen. You know, looking at it in a different way. But you know, this verse reminds us that that's Spirit of fear is not the spirit that God gives us. It's not what he wants us to have.
It goes on to say but of power reminding us that God. Empowers Believers to overcome the challenges of this life and to be able to live boldly. For the kingdom of God.
And it goes on to say that we are to love. You know, God's love should be our motivating force. No, it shouldn't be that were motivated to make decisions out of fear. We should be making our decisions out of knowing that we are loved by God and do the fact that we know we are loved by God. That can Inspire us, not only to love others, but it can Inspire us to know that, you know, if God puts opportunities in front of us, and we seize those opportunities even though we might be fearful of doing. So, if we're doing it out of love being motivated by God's love, God is going to make it work out for us, one way or the other.
The verse also says, and self-discipline, you know, some translations, read a sound mind. You're telling us that God gives us a clear mind. He gives us a disciplined well-balanced, mind capable of making wise decisions.
Cuz, you know, a lot of the time, I think the roadway fear stops US is because we know that God's wisdom is not the same as the world's wisdom. sometimes his Believers will make decisions that the world may think are anything, but wise But it's because they're motivated by God's love and we should know that if we're feeling led to make that decision, even though it might defy conventional wisdom. God gives us a clear mind. He'll help us to understand it. Do you know the overall that verse encourages us to live with courage, to live with love and to rely? on the wisdom of scripture for our power and guidance, as we live out our life, another key verse that was tied to this song as in Zephaniah 3:17. Says, for the Lord, your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior, he will take Delight in you with gladness, with his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. You know, this verse reminds us that God speaks over our lives that God is there to be an active participant in our lives. He is a very present in loving father. And, you know, I could set it highlights several key aspects of God's relationship with his children. I said, you know, that first one is that he is there he is an active participant. And sometimes, as we're going through things in life, we can feel like maybe God isn't there, maybe he's not in the midst of this. God is always there and maybe we are just not in the right place. Spiritually to be feeling his presence to be noticing how he's working.
and the verse also says that God is a mighty savior, you know, reminding us once again that God is able to deliver and protect his people. So if you're doing something motivated by the love of God that might seem a little crazy, might seem a little out there by the logic of the world you can do. So, still knowing that God will protect you. He will provide in this instance,
I love how it goes on to describe that God Delights in his people. You notice you read a couple different commentators about that. It talks about, you know, that God loves his people so much and he rejoices in them over singing over them. He's so happy about them.
You have you ever thought about that that you please God so much that it makes him sing. It makes him that happy. I don't think we think about that. You know, another commentator said that God expresses his Love To Us by his gentleness with us
You know that makes me think that the way God shows his gentleness has that's when we aren't necessarily in that place where we need to be to be able to hear what God's telling us. Maybe it's been awhile since we've read our Bible. Maybe it's been a while since we went to him in prayer. God gently nudges us and remind us of his presence. Letting us know that he's there that he wants to be a part of our life. He wants to lead us and guide us.
I just said that. He will be quiet in his love is what some translation say. You know, just telling us that, you know, God is there to calm all of our fears and anxieties. He will be there. He will be present. Like I said, Zephaniah, 3:17 is often seen as a message of Hope and Assurance reminding Believers that they are loved and cherished by God, who is actively involved in their lives.
John radick who wrote the song, when he gave an interview on a Christian radio, station about the song, this is what he shared. He says, I believe fear has been holding us down for a long time. Many of us for most of our lives. I believe it's actually the Crux of Brokenness in our world but I also believe that hope is in Jesus. Jesus helps us not to escape and go around this actual thing that we are fearing but instead Jesus helps us to move through it. So, my prayer is that fear is not over your family, it's not over your future, it's not over your life. If that's what he's meaning, you know, and let's face it, he's right, you know, many of us would rather detour around those things that we fear, right? We would rather that God somehow make a way for us to get around this. But so often that is not what God does. What God promises is that he will be with us as we move through it.
You know, this whole series kicked off with a verse that does exactly that you know, Psalm 23. In particular, Psalm 23 verse for which reads. Yay though, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff. They comfort me.
Give me a few read, through Psalm 23. I mean, that is a passage of scripture that takes quite a turn.
You know, you start off, you know, laying and lush green, grass, and peaceful. Valleys with gently free-flowing. Babbling, Brooks all around you. You do just a perfect picture of Serenity and peace, right? But then were talking about walking through the valley of the shadow of death. I mean that is a severe difference there.
The song 23 is testifying to the fact that no matter the circumstances God is with us. That is what David was trying to get across when he wrote this song that no matter what you were going through. God is there. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to have fear because God is walking through it with you, no matter what it is.
Yeah, there's a line in the song that says the light of the world makes the darkness disappear. Again, the author is repeating scripture in John 1:5. It says the light shines in the darkness and the Darkness can never extinguish it. you know, that verse is kind of part of the prologue of the Book of John, which introduces you know, Jesus as the word of God, who was with God who is God
but this verse in particular, verse 5, It highlights that contrast between light and dark. You know, it's a common thing in our world of light and dark has always been used to represent, Good and Evil. And that's what it's doing here, you know. But it also represents truth and falsehood Or maybe we could even think of it as the presence or absence of God's presence and situations feeling like we're in the light or feeling like we're in the Darkness. You know, but the in this verse the light is representing Jesus. Who is shining brightly in a world? That is shrouded in darkness. and despite the fact that the darkness continues to try as hard as it can, to extinguish the light, it never can Yo, there's always been the illustration of one, little tiny light in a pitch-black room. Can seem like it's providing a lot of light, just because It's the only source of light there. And, you know, this verse is just reminding us. That the Light of Christ shines within a sin if it shines within us. No amount of Darkness can defeat it. TED talks about Christ, victory over Darkness, you know, the verse emphasizes that Christ has triumphed over the forces of evil and sin, which we know that, right? You know, we've also tied all these things we've been talking about over the weeks, to the resurrection of Christ. And it's because of the power of the Resurrection that we can have this faith. This verse also talks about the transformative power of our faith. You know, it's suggesting that if you believe in Jesus, who is the lights that you don't have to fear the darkness, you don't have to fear whatever it is, as long as you know, you have Jesus walking with you through whatever this is This verse also talks about God's grace and salvation, you know, that suck another common analogy for the Light of Christ is that Christ light shines, you know, even in the midst of our Darkness. So even in the midst of our sin and our Brokenness, Light of Christ can still shine through the Light of Christ can chase away that darkness and offer us the forgiveness in the Redemption that we need. But we have to accept the Light of Christ. She know this verse also acknowledges the ongoing struggle, you know, while we all know ultimately that the light prevails We also know that we live in a fallen world that you know where human we're going to fail, the world's going to fail us, you know, there's a lot of difficulty there that's going to come with every day. We know that He has so many of the passages. We've worked through over the last several weeks acknowledge that same fact that, you know, life is not always sunny and 70 degrees.
But we don't have to fear whatever it is, you know. So John 15 is a powerful declaration that Jesus the light has victory over darkness and we need to embrace the hope that that offers to us that we don't need to be living in fear, you know, that whole course of this song, You Know. No Fear, you know, when the choir joins in with him and they start seeing it, you know, that can be catchy. And when he's talking about, you know, not over my family, not over my life. Do we truly believe that do we believe that the Light of Christ can overcome that Darkness cuz all too often were fearful of everything that's going on in our world in our life? And I think, we forget that, we don't have to live in that fear. Because we have the Light of Christ within us and we know in the end who wins. you know, I always think that that is we Think about life. And, you know, we're always worried. We'll how is this going to go? How's that going to go? How's this going to end up? We don't know. You don't really. It should be like you know if you ever recorded a ball game and you want no one to tell you the score, right? Cuz you don't want to know you want to watch it for yourself and find it out. But inevitably someone will tell you what the final score was you know, as Christians, we need to embrace the fact that we know the final score we know because of Christ's resurrection that he has defeated sin and death once and for all It's done. We're just waiting for the time when God finally declares. Okay, this is the final buzzer. The game is over.
It's already been defeated. We already know that in the end. God wins. We just have to embrace that and remind the enemy of that every now and then. You know, like Karen said, when she finally just said, to the Old Devil, no. You can't tell me that I am going to fight this because that's what God wants me to do. And that's the sort of Courage were supposed to have. That's my prayer. That is we continue to work through this. That will remember that, you know, the power of God, that spoke all of creation into existence that brought Jesus out of that grave. That that power is still available to us, that it is still a part of our world and because of that, We can live without fear. Please pray with me. Heavenly father, I thank you for all the blessings, you give us Lord. I Thank you for how you help us. Each and every minute of each and every day. Lord when we Face great challenges in life and fear begins to set in Lord, I pray that we will be quick to remember. Did you do not give us a spirit of fear or timidity? But Lord, a Spirit of Courage and Power. because we can trust in you Lord because we know that the Light of Christ has extinguished the darkness once and for all enlarged that no matter how bad things might seem.
in the end, we know that you went Lord in the end, we know that our savior has defeated sin and death. And Lord that you. Can give us the courage to face whatever it is in our life and to boldly walk through it. And Lord, I pray that you will give each of us. The courage to be able to walk through, whatever it is that you put in front of us in life. Lord, and still be able to shine the light of Jesus. And share with others how much you love them. Can we pray this all in your most? Holy name. Amen.
