Gen 32:9-11, And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who didst say to me, 'Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,' I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which Thou hast shown to Thy servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me, the mothers with the children.
	We return today to our discussion of the fear that grips us at times, even when we are doing that which the Lord tells us to do. Obedience, by itself, is not always the comfort that our hearts seek. There is much more needed in the human mind and heart than just the knowledge that we are doing the right thing. 
	You see, every man can do the correct action at times. This is something that can be motivated by an emotional response to some stimulus. It can be the force of moral judgment. It can be a reaction of remorse in order to try to soothe a guilty conscious. It can be the social or family pressure to do the right thing. There are a vast number of reasons that mankind will sometimes take upon himself the moral high ground and accede to the appropriate action. The key, however, is that there is always the consideration of the consequences which is thoroughly embedded in the fear of the result of those actions. 
	As Christians, there is something else that is a part of providing the obedience with the power to obey regardless of how it will ultimately affect us. As a matter of fact, most often, we obey knowing that the result will be a further death of self. Regardless, we accept that with the joy that this is what needs to take place in our lives for the further glory of God to be manifested on this earth in the lives that we are called to live. 
	Consider how the disciples were brought into this knowledge in the course of their time with Jesus. Please turn to Matt 8:24-27. Matt 8:24-27, And behold, there arose a great storm in the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves; but He Himself was asleep. And they came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing!" And He said to them, "Why are you timid, you men of little faith?" Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and it became perfectly calm. And the men marveled, saying, "What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" 
	They were in the very presence of the Son of God, and yet they feared for their lives. They had entered the boat in obedience to the command of their Master. They were experienced fishermen, who made their livelihood on the sea. They were in very familiar territory doing what they normally did and yet they were gripped by terror. They knew that Christ was not afraid and was even asleep in the midst of the storm, but their fear for survival was greater than their trust and faith in Him. 
	How many of us face this reality in our day to day walk on this earth? This fear of death, fear of losing possessions, fear of losing our family, fear of publicly proclaiming the Lord, fear of humiliation, or the fear of having to face the sin that so easily corrupts our very best of intentions. This fear of facing ourselves in the light of God's Holiness and Righteousness, even in the midst of our obedience unto the Lord, often so grips us that we hear that voice of our Lord in our hearts, "Why are you timid, you men of little faith?" 
	No, obedience is not enough to calm the onslaught of the fears that so perversely attack the very core of our beings! It takes the very power and presence of the Holy Spirit to bring to mind all that is contained in the following proclamation of our Lord Jesus Christ. John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." 
	There should come that point in our Christian life where we become settled in the fact of the power of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ, as the source of our strength and courage and wisdom to face the every fear of this earthly life. It is as we undergo all those trials and tribulations which allow the Lord the opportunity to show just how fully He has overcome the world, that our fear is replaced with the peace of God that overwhelms all the anxiety and the worry and the strife which magnify our fears and qualms.
	In this light, and as an encouragement to our living relationship with Jesus Christ, we turn our attention to how this was manifested in the Apostle Paul. His apostleship was one in which, all that would otherwise overwhelm and defeat his ministry, rather served to strengthen and to establish his resolve to be all that Christ required in utmost service of joy and love to God. 
	Please turn to Acts 14:19-22. Acts 14:19-22, But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. But while the disciples stood around him, he arose and entered the city. And the next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." 
	Notice how Paul was treated by the stirred up and enraged multitude in the Jew's anger against the preaching of Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. They stoned him, and thinking that he was dead, they dragged his body outside the city and dumped him for the carrion beasts to devour. But this did nothing to stop the Apostle Paul from immediately going forward with the preaching of the Gospel. As we are told, he preached the gospel, made many disciples, strengthened the souls of the disciples, encouraged them to continue in the faith and proclaimed the truth that "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."
	Paul was a man of God who did not fear what this world could do, would do, or did to him. He continued to preach Christ, no matter what the circumstances, trials, earthly dilemmas, or threats of anger and abuse. 
As he so reported in his second letter to the Corinthian Church, Chapter 1, verses 3-11, 2 Cor 1:3-11, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many. 
	The Apostle Paul saw very clearly that all that befell him in his service and obedience to Christ was for the sake of all those beloved brethren who would be the recipients of the benefits of that suffering. In the every peril and strife, Jesus proves Himself over and over again as both Savior and Lord. The Holy Spirit provides the strength and the comfort and the guidance and the wisdom to deal effectively as the source from which to minister life and truth. No matter what our situation, our lives are those living sacrifices in which all that we do we do for others as unto the Lord.
	The Apostle Paul even catalogues all that he had to suffer for the sake of the gospel in that same letter to the Corinthians. He does so, not for sympathy or to show how excellent he is in himself, but for the declaration of the virtue of Jesus Christ, in Whom all that abuse became as merely part of the glorious service of God. He was detailing all that God had done in His Sovereign hand of protection upon Paul. 2 Cor 11:24-28, Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches. 
	In his letter to Timothy, the Apostle encourages his young protégé in the manner in which to consider all such persecution and tribulation. He should expect nothing less in his life than was suffered by Paul and was suffered by Our Lord Jesus for your sake and for my sake. 2 Tim 3:10-13, But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me! And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 
We should not be looking for mankind to be anything other than what they are in terms of their animosity and hatred for the proclaimed Lordship of Jesus Christ. In all things, mankind will serve only man's selfish purposes and goals which will put true Christians on an absolute collision course as we stand for Jesus Christ in every detail of our every interaction with others. This world will not put up with the truest witness of love, just as it would not put up with the very Person of Love, Our Lord and Savior. 
	Even throughout the Old Testament, those who were the true Children of God in faithfully serving Him were persecuted and reviled and slain for their testimony of God in this realm. As we read in Heb 11:36-12:6, Heb 11:36-12:6,  and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives." 
	Please note that the whole emphasis of this listing of evil purposes against the Children of God is for the sake of our encouragement to not fear what this world can do, but to take refuge in the assurance that God will accomplish His plan and purpose in our very lives! He will complete all that he determines to do in us for His glory. 
	In that heart and with that clarity of light in Christ, we again hear the compassionate declaration of the Apostle Paul to us to set aside all our fears and to count on The Lord Jesus Christ to manifest Himself in all His goodness and grace and mercy. Phil 4:4-7, Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So be it!
And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who didst say to me, 'Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,' I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which Thou hast shown to Thy servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 106:48. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, "Amen." Praise the Lord! Amen.