Sermon Tone Analysis

Greet everyone and ask if they are well rested from the extra hour of sleep that they received last night?

Mention of the baptismal service immediately following the regular service.

(Baptizing Joshua Michael Applegate, “Jake”).

Wednesday evening is a night for PRAISE AND WORSHIP only!

Today is the National Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church around the world.

We stand together today with our brothers and sister around the globe and we pray for those who are being persecuted in the name of and for the cause of Jesus the Christ.

(TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO PRAY)

Well, let me start off this morning by recapping last week’s message, as today is a continuation of that message, in a sermon series entitled, “Things That Go Bump In the Night”.

I asked the question last week, of “why do so many people, especially Christians, love to pursue things that produce FEAR, in their lives?”

I also asked about about the DARKNESS and things of horror and the macabre and of why such things allure and draw so many people in?

Why are people so intrigued with DEATH and destruction and the occultic?

If so led, mention of Lisa and Wicca and witchcraft and ouija boards, etc.

And also the “witchcraft” of rebellion.

(, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”)

And to what lengths do people go to investigate and explore this area in order to satiate their appetite of such things?

In speaking of FEAR, I mentioned that there are actually healthy FEARS and then there are unhealthy FEARS.

The Bible clearly shows us that the FEAR of the Lord is not only a wise and good thing, but it also the the source of all blessings and true life for the believer!

David said in the Psalms, “Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!”

And his son, the wise king Solomon said, “The fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.”

The FEAR of the Lord does not refer to the strong emotion caused by an anticipation or awareness of danger to the individual, but rather, the “FEAR of the Lord God” refers to a reverential and worshipful way that a true believer approaches the Lord!

And when you have that healthy and reverent and worshipful FEAR of God in your life, then you begin to walk in the abundant blessings of the Lord!

And those who walk in the FEAR of the Lord God and who desire His presence in their lives and who strive to do everything that He commands us to do in His Word; they don’t live in the FEAR of the things of this world!

And as we will see in a minute, FEARING the things of this world is not a HEALTHY FEAR and in fact becomes sinful for the believer!

This is why David, while on the run from King Saul, wrote .

It was a time in which David had acted out of the FEAR of men and pretended to be crazy, to spare his own life and then afterwards, realized that as long as he FEARED God only, he was completely protected!

Listen to some of what David tells us in this passage, he said, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my FEARS.

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who FEAR Him, and delivers them.

Oh, FEAR the LORD, you his saints, for those who FEAR Him have no lack!

Turn away from evil and do good!”

for those who fear him have no lack!

Turn away from evil and do good!”

Turn away from evil and do good!”

I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

around those who fear him, and delivers them

So David tells us in this passage, as do other passages found in the Bible, that FEARING the Lord God is not only a healthy FEAR, but it is a must for any true believer!

I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me.

You cannot walk with God, if you do not truly FEAR Him in all reverence and holiness!

I also mentioned last week, that the emotional state of FEAR, is a normal and healthy thing that God created and placed within us, as a protective mechanism.

(The “fight-or-flight” syndrome, as we call it.)

This is another type of FEAR that is normal and healthy, because it serves to keep our bodies from harm.

Now, there are those who exist, who are what we call, “adrenaline junkies”, who go after certain types of experiences which produce the “fight-or-flight” syndrome, in order to get that large rush of adrenaline into their systems.

(Like people who base jump, or climb the side of sheer cliffs!)

and delivered me from all my fears.

The closest thing to going after an “adrenaline pumping” scenario for me, would be walking into the Black Friday shopping crowd at Walmart, when all of their big screen TVs are 75% off!

He freed me from all my fears.

That’s about as wild and adventurous as I really ever need to be!

My point is, the emotional response of FEAR, is a kind of FEAR that is not unhealthy, when it is prompted by circumstances that could be harmful or fatal to us.

Unless of course, a person develops irrational FEARFUL scenarios in their minds (phobias) about different things.

Then it becomes unhealthy.

There are a lot of people in America now, in the younger generations especially, who have the phobia called, “Mageirocophobia (magiro-kah-phobia)”!

This phobia is a nasty one........it is the FEAR of cooking!

Seriously though, there are millions of people in the United States, who have these irrational FEARS, that we call “phobias”.

There are phobias of: (READ FROM LIST)

Does anyone know which phobia is usually always in the top 10, if not in the number one slot in America?

It is, “Glossophobia”, the fear of “public speaking”.

Having to stand in front of a crowd of people and speak, produces an irrational FEAR in the hearts of more than 1/4 of Americans!

More so than that of DEATH, which, this year, was not even in the top 10 list of phobias.

Snakes was number 1 and even the fear of birds was in the top 10, but not the FEAR of DEATH, surprisingly.

And speaking of DEATH and the FEAR thereof, I also mentioned to you last week, that to a true and faithful Christian, the thought of physical death, is not FEARFUL.

The reason that I say this, is because the DEATH of a believer is nothing more than the removal of the veil that exists between our physical life and our spiritual one and our walking into eternity, to be with our Lord and Savior!

This is why Paul said in , ”For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.

But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ.

So I really don’t know which is better.

I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me.

But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.”

It is not the DEATH of our bodies that we should FEAR as humans, which is the 1st DEATH according to the Bible.

Rather it is the 2nd DEATH we should FEAR, which is the eternal judgement against our spirit and of being cast into the lake of fire and into the outer DARKNESS for ALL ETERNITY!

This is why Jesus said, “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that.

But I’ll tell you whom to FEAR.

FEAR God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell.

Yes, he’s the one to FEAR.”

You see, without Jesus truly being Lord of your life, there comes the guarantee of and the FEAR of expectancy of eternal separation from God and the removal of all love and all hope and all peace, by being cast into the very place that has been reserved for the devil and all of the fallen angels that went with him.

5 “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!

This place is also the place of torment for everyone who rejects the truth of the gospel and who makes a mockery of the Son of God and of His great sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary.

It is a place that Jesus, referred to three times in Matthews gospel account as the, “outer darkness”.

And in mentioning this place, Jesus said of it, “in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In other words, THIS place, will be a place of pain and suffering for all eternity!

To a true Christian, this expectancy of suffering and FEAR has been removed, because the love of God in their life, removes any FEAR of eternal judgement and punishment, according to .

I want to park here for a second on this issue of the “outer darkness” that Jesus made mention of those three times in Matthew, since we are talking about FEAR and specifically the FEAR of the judgement of God against those who reject Yeshua, His Son.

I taught a lesson a couple of years ago, about the realities of a place that exists and its sole purpose of existence is for the eternal punishment for the devil and all of the fallen angels who rebelled against God and also for every man and woman who would ever reject God’s salvation through the Christ.

This place is a place unlike anything that man can imagine.

It is a place that the book of Revelation refers to as, “the lake of fire”.

We tend to refer to this place as “hell”, but “hell” is another name for

This is what John the revelator wrote in dealing with this place, he said, “And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet are.

And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. . .

Then Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death.

And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

This is a very real place, just as heaven is a very real place.

And this is a place where torment never ends.

Jesus said this about this place of torment in , “ hell, ‘where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”

The area at the south side of Jerusalem was known as the "Valley of Hinnom", (or Gehenna in the Greek), and it was the place, where in the OT, people would sacrifice their children to the god Molech.

By the times of Jesus and the NT, the Valley of Hinnom came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned.

The fire of gehenna never went out, and the worms never died.

So it came to be used symbolically of the place of divine punishment.

So, Jesus used this name to refer to a place that was designed for torment and punishment; the same place that John would later refer to as, “the Lake of Fire”.

And this place is not just a place of torment by means of fire, but it is also a place that is devoid of any light, devoid of any hope, devoid of any love and devoid of any compassion, at any level and for all eternity!

I don’t think that too many people really consider what this place will be like.

Jesus refers to it as the “outer darkness”.

Why does He not just say, “the darkness”, verses the “outer darkness”?