FROM FEAR TO FAITH.

Good Morning welcome to our online service… I am so glad that you have joined us today… We are just five days away from Christmas…

On Christmas morning we will be Celebrating Julotta service online - here on this platform… Richvale.online.church… service start at 7:00 am… this is really a wonderful tradition and I hope that you will be able to join us…Please share the link with family and friends

We are in our Christmas Advent Series entitled, Fear Not… Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the appearances of the angels in the advent story… the appearance to Mary, to Joseph and this morning we are going to looking at the appearance of the angels to the Shepherds…

Now Each of theses appearances or theophanies ... were awesome events and each encounter is prefaced with the exact same message from the angels… and that is Fear Not…

And so we have been talking about How to overcome fear....

If we are honest there all kinds of things that we allow into our lives that have caused fear and anxiety… there is never a shortage of things we can worry about?

…You can go to Wikopedia and look up the word Fear and you will be presented with well over 150 fears and phobeas --- and …

even If you didn’t know you had a fear by the time you have finishing reading the list you will find something that could be fearful of..

The real Problem with Fear is that it has the potential to over take our lives…

and if we allow it. Fear will define who we are and what we do …

Max Lacado says that..

“Fear doesn't want you make the journey to the mountain. .... fear will persuade you to take your eyes off the peaks and settle for a dull existence in the flatland.”

Fear can keep us living way below God’s intended purpose and calling for our lives…

This morning we are going to see how God can change the narrative of our lives from one of Fear to one of Faith... .

In the Scriptures… God always moves his people from the place of fear to the place of faith…

The author of the book Hebrews tells us that we don’t have live under the shadow of fear but rather we can live by faith by taking ahold of God’s promises..

Hebrews 10:39 ESV

39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

if you keeping reading…the next verse is Hebrews 11 … where we are told that Faith is the assurance of things Hoped for and the evidence of things not seen…

Faith and fear are similar… both deal with the invisible worlds and expectations of what is unseen.. The difference is what we focus on… faith focuses on hope and the Fear focuses on the problems ,..Both are invisible expectations..with different focuses..

Someone once described F.E.A.R in an acronym:

False

Expectations

Appearing

Real.

As you go through Hebrews 11 you find this list of regular people whose lives were transformed from fear to faith..

They all had their struggles and their fears… people in that list like Joseph…who never gave up …when facing incredible trials.. Moses…who overcame his own limitations....

They all had Fear.. but..

God transformed their hearts and minds,… and changed their focus and ultimately the narative of their lives changed… and they are remember as people of faith ...those who … believed God…

T/S The wonderful thing about God is that He starts where we are at..

In the Advent story… God comes to the most unexpected people…

He comes to Mary and Joseph this young couple engaged to be married … who have nothing in this world… as far as Position, Power or possessions....

then God comes to these bedouin Shepherds on the outskirts of Bethlehem ...Shepherds were marked as the lowest of people on the social wrung.. They were considered to be ceremonially unclean were not allowed to enter the city… Shepherds were considered to be liars and not be trusted by the general public.. they were thought to be scammers and thieves.

But it is to these shepherds that God chose to entrust the message of the Good News..

..God always starts where we are AT!!

In Corinthians... Paul tells us to consider our calling in Salvation — because it wasn't because of our wisdom or abilities or our nobility ..that we we chosen…

Paul tells us that God chose the foolish and weak things of this world to shame the wise..…and the reason he did this was for His Glory…

1 Corinthians 1:28–29 ESV

28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

The reason God chooses our weakness — is because God knows human nature… We tend to give ourselves more credit than we deserve… …we have these perfectionist tendancies tomake ourselves look better than we really are …

Social Psychologists tell us 94 % of college professors consider themselves in the top 10 percent of their profession?

99 percent of people surveyed believe that the world would be a better place ...if people obeyed the Golden Rule.

and then… 95 % of them believed that they practiced the Golden rule… Which would mean that the world would be that much better place… … but it is not...

Dr. Brené Brown calls this the

“20-ton shield of perfectionism” — it is the shield we put up to keep ourselves from being hurt.

In truth, perfectionism keeps us from actually being seen or vulnerably exposed. Perfectionism isn’t the pursuit of excellence or holding high standards, it’s an addictive belief system fueled by the thought, “If I look perfect, live perfectly, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.”

The problem is that...

We set up these standards…that we think we can attain... … but in reality we are just measuring ourselves by ourselves..

The only way we get a true sense of who we are... is when measure ourselves by a TRUE STANDARD… Truth is not so much a belief or philophosy -- truth is a person..

Jesus declared himself to be the Truth...

Jn 14:6..., “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me

John 1:1–2 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.

Here is the thing the Closer we are to the one who Himself is Truth…The clearer vision we will have of ourselves…..

When Isaiah got near God, he got a revelation of who He really was and said, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”

Transformation will only come when we Truth Encounter…

T/s What is a Truth encounter.? Truth Encounter is when we..

1. Encounter the Glory of God

I remember years ago learning about Richard Wurmbrant who spent fourteen years in Romanian captivity, in solitary confinement because of his faith in Christ…

Other Christians were housed in the prison, and in the early years of incarceration they worked out a system of communication by tapping on the sewer pipes.

One of the Christian prisoners sent a message to Richard suggesting they celebrate communion. Richard was heartbroken. He would have loved to have communion, but there were no elements to represent the body and blood of Christ.

When he tapped out a message explaining the dilemma, he received this reply: “God specializes in taking nothing and making it something; let’s have communion.”

When Richard was released from prison he testified that his most meaningful times were those moments when he pictured the bread in his hands and broke it and tapped to the next cell, “Take and eat in remembrance of me.”

God always meets us at our most common point of need, and He specializes in our emptiness!

Lets read our text of the Encounter between the Angel and the Shepherds...

Luke 2:8–9 ESV

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

These Shepherds were watching over their flock on what was probably a perfectly calm and peaceful night.

As soon as God’s light comes upon them, they are terrified.. We are told that the angel of the Lord appeared to them and they were filled with great fear… the king James tells us they were were sore afraid..

What you have here is ancient language us a technical device to make a point… where the same word is repeated twice…The Greek word Phobos is repeated twice… These Shepherds were not just Phobos… afraid… but they were Phobeo Phobos…

They were extremely Terrified..

Why might they be afraid? Well there could be a number of reasons… One of the reason is that when being confronted with the Glory of God they might have expected Judgment.

Remember Shepherds were not exactly… practicing Judaism..— As shepherds they had a nomadic lifestyle and they were spent their lives on the road… they couldn’t make time to go to the temple and bring an offering… they were often ceremonially unclean because of their work…

When God shows up --- maybe they were thing in terms of punishment — and feeling unworthy...

But instead of Punishment they received mercy and Grace… This is an incredible sight and experience.. But, The angel don’t come with a message of judgement… but they come with a message of grace…

Because of Jesus we don’t have to fear… the writer of Hebrews tells because Christ has come as Savior — Let us hold on to our Confession of Faith..

Hebrews 4:16 ESV

16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

The Good news of Great joy… is that instead of receiving Justice… we have received mercy…

We don’t have to fear… when we draw Close to God....

T/s What brings transformation is a Truth Encounter.... a truth encounte is when we..

1. Encounter the Glory of God

2. Encounter the Savior.

lets read our text..

Luke 2:10–12 ESV

10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

This is a pivotal Verse.. Why is there no need to fear? The Word BEHOLD MEANS…… “We are to Pay CLOSE attention TO what was is said next because this is what is important.”

The angels brings Good news that a Savior has been Born…The word

savior means rescuer; then “Christ,”

Both Jews as well as Gentiles understood the word Savior.. For the Greeks and Romans, the word “savior” could be applied to their gods as well as to great military or political leaders. Julius Caesar was called a “savior.” .

for the Jews they hoped that the Christ the Messiah would deliver them from the hands of the Romans…

But Jesus came on a different mission… Jesus came to establish a different kind of kingdom… a spiritual Kingdom and deliver people from sin… Jesus as Savior didn’t take on One generational issue.. He took on the sin that impacts every single generation since the fall of mankind..

The Good News is that Christ would save us from our sins..

Paul in the book of Romans explains how Christ has rescued us… Romans 3:20

Paul tells us that Good News is, we cannot earn God’s acceptance by observing the Law. We cannot be good enough for God by trying to obey all of the Law.

And this was such good news for the shepherds, because they lived in a society where the Pharisees tried to obey 613 laws. Christians, we had the Ten Commandments.

Then, God said, “Let’s make it easy. I’ll give you two: Love God, love people. Let’s really narrow it down.” They were trying to obey 613 laws, and the shepherds physically could not do it. Their occupation prohibited them from being able to obey the Law.

How does God rescue..

Romans 3:21–22 ESV

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

There is a new Righteousness that is found apart from the law...

IN other words..the Law will point out weakness..but it can’t save you.

We have that Bridge on the Midway that is being repaired…and it is going to take a little while to be repaired..

Over the last 8 years we drove over that Bridge never gave it a thought - Until the Department of Transportation said that bridge has a problem… It is beginning to show stress in weakness… You may not know that t a bridge has weakness… but when you start driving heavy machinery over it… all of a sudden those fractures become easier.. to see… Once I knew that the bridge had weaknesses - I thought of that bridge a little differently… Well that is what the Law does… it points out the stress… But it cannot fix the problem…

The Good News teaches us this: Righteousness with God comes by faith in Christ alone. It’s not Christ plus church membership. It’s not Christ plus good work. It’s Christ plus nothing. It’s putting our faith in Christ alone.

This is verse 22: “We are made right with God by” – doing what? – “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.”

T/s What brings transformation is a Truth Encounter.... a truth encounter is when we..

1. Encounter the Glory of God

2. Encounter the Savior.

3. Encounter the Missionary God..

On October 30th, 2010, more than six hundred Philadelphia-area singers circulated among the Saturday morning shoppers in the large Macy's store in downtown Philadelphia.

Why did the message come with such glory… …

The message is not one of Judgement but one of Grace..

The Glory of God has come to bring about peace...

Hebrew word shalom... It speaks of Completeness, Wholeness, Soundness, deliverance and salvation.... It speaks of reconciliation with God.

That God came to us to remove every barrier between himself and us....

..Carl Sandburg, American poet, novelist, and historian, wrote the words,

"Love your neighbor as yourself; but don't take down the fence." Carl Sandburg

Well God did the opposite .... He took down the fence..He came to fulfill every requirement of the Law.... provided everything needed for you and I to have a right relationship with God...

The message — came with

It is never enough to just listen to the word even if we listen attentively

What we find that these Shepherds not only had an experience ...they discovered their calling and mission… immediately they leave and go and find Mary and Joseph…

Luke 2:16–19 ESV

16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

First of all they heard the word..and they responded to the word..

There are two primary words used for the Word of God… one is the word Logos - which refers to the written word… the other is the word Rhema… which is the word that is spoken or proclaimed… What is interesting about this section in Matthew is the word rhema comes up in 3 diffrent times..

In verse 15 the shepherds say lets us go and see this THING that has happened — well the WORD THING is the Rhema word that thing that was spoken… WORD WAS PERFORMED..

THEN In verse 17

vrs 17 and when they saw it.. ..that is the sign of Jesus wrapped in a manger..... they knew this was fulfillment of the angels words… there must have been other babies born in Bethlehem that day… but only one in lying in manger with swaddling cloth… When they saw the sign … the made known the SAYING of the angels.... the saying is the word Rhema… spoken word of God....

THE THIRD TIME IS WHEN MARY PONDERED THESE THINGS.. IN HER HEART...

It is the Gospel Proclaimation that is going to bring Joy to all people… You can have the Gideons bible sitting in a desk in a hotel… thats the logos… word… But, the Logos becomes the Rhema when it is proclaimed…

The Rhema word is the living word that will bring Joy…

This encounter with the Word and the presence of God changed the narative of the Shepherds life… They were not the same when they went back to the flocks..

Luke 2:20 ESV

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Shepherds went back Rejoicing

Conclusion:

Ray Stedman told the story of a time when, after a Billy Graham crusade meeting, he slipped into a seat on a bus beside a young man who had gone forward in the meeting that night and given his heart to Christ. Pastor Stedman spoke to him of what his new life would mean, and mentioned that he could now be free from all fear of death. The young man turned and looked the older man in the eye and said, “I have never been much afraid of death. But I’ll tell you what I am afraid of—I’m afraid I’ll waste my life.”