Sunday June 13, 1993

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
	We are coming to the conclusion of our brief consideration of the will of God in us as His people, chosen unto Himself through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Last time, if you will recall, we dealt with two of the three obstacles that can prevent us from coming into a deeper relationship with God and the knowledge of His will. They are our natural hostility to God, that residue of our old flesh which was at enmity with God, and our deliberate choice to allow sin to have a place in our earthly lives. 
	We also examined the conditions that God has provided in Christ to overcome these obstacles. We found that the hostility of our flesh has been replaced by a willingness of heart by the Holy Spirit to desire after the things of God. This is effective as we seek to know more and more of God and continually seek after His way of life in this realm. The more we know God, the more our hearts are after Him in love. The more we learn His way of life, the more fully we appreciate the beauty and the joy and the peace of God in our beings, and the less and less our lives give expression to any hostility, to man or to God.
	The obstacle of sin is removed as we are obedient to God in our lives. As we learn more and more of His Word in study before Him, our lives become more desirous after His purity and His holiness rather than our weakness and filth. His Word brings life, and we yearn to please Him more and more each day. Our hearts should be filled with the prayer that He would teach us to be obedient in order to bless Him fully in our lives on this earth. This is the heart that will overcome sin in Christ Jesus. As we obey His Word and lift our hearts before Him in prayer, we will find that it is not a difficult thing to obey, but pleasant and beneficial and pleasing to our most blessed Heavenly Father. If we listen to Him, and respond to the guidance of His Word, we will experience the joy of being in the will of God, and the power of His Spirit to overcome all temptations that beset us.
	The third aspect, with which we will conclude this evening, is that obstacle of fear. Many times, we are afraid of what God might want us to do and afraid that we would be incapable of fulfilling his will, even if we knew what He wanted. We are afraid of the consequences of our obedience and what that could lead to, as well as fearing the consequences of disobedience and what harvest that will yield. We are afraid to live in Christ and we are afraid to live apart from Him. We are afraid of so many things when it comes to God, that our lives sometimes seem to reflect more the aspects of terrified rabbits rather than patient warriors shielded in Christ. 
	A life lived in fear, fear of any kind, is a life lived apart from the will of God. If we know God, if we are enjoying the life of Christ living His life in us, we are not afraid. That is simply another aspect of the residue of that old life which needs to be removed from our beings, by the grace of the working of the Holy Spirit. Let us examine this obstacle with a longing in our hearts for a deeper relationship with Christ to know Him in His essence of surety and security. 
	We have an excellent pattern provided in the Old Testament of a life characterized by this dread that God would have us do something of which we didn't want any part. It is the example of Jonah as he was instructed by the Lord to go to Ninevah to preach against their great wickedness. He had specific instructions from the Lord, and yet he was afraid to go forth unto the city to do as the Lord directed. Rather, in the fear of his heart, he headed for Tarshish, to flee from the presence of the Lord, as we are told in Jonah 1:3. Rather than to submit to the will of God, Jonah chose to flee from His presence and from His guidance and from His Word. How true this is of each of us when we are afraid of the will of God. Rather than to submit, we choose to run away. We seek to hide from the Lord and to avoid Him because of our anxiety. We tremble at the thought that we might be called to speak out against the evil of this licentious realm. We quake at the idea that we might be sent forth as missionaries to some backward land. We tremble at the thought of having to express Christ to our enemies, or worse to our families of in-laws and out-laws.
	We are basically timid and shy individuals, or so we tell the Lord and not the kind of Christian witnesses that He needs in order to call others unto Himself. Leave us alone to pray in our quiet solitude, and we will support those on the front lines of the spiritual battle being waged in this domain. We are not eloquent enough to go forth and witness about the Lord, or we would really like to, but we can't seem to find the time with all our other responsibilities. 
	We are good at finding all the excuses which we feel will cause God to choose someone else, with more talent and patience and lovingkindness. We know in our hearts that we should give in, and give complete obedience to the Lord, but we fear the consequences and the stigma that this world heaps upon those in service to the Lord.
	Deut. 31:8 should speak forth to our timidity of spirit as we quake before the fears of what the Lord would have us do. And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. This was the admonition of Moses to Joshua. Moses, the one who had used all the excuses before the Lord, and by whom the Lord had proven Himself greater than any fear and any Pharaoh. It had taken a mighty work of God to bring Moses to the point where he could confidently stand before the people and proclaim the Word of God and the way of God over all the ways of their sinfulness. Such will God do in each of our lives as He proves Himself. He does not call us because of what we could do for Him. He calls us as the vessels through whom He can prove Himself unto all those about us. Whatever the purpose God has set before us, we need to realize that He is the One who will carry it forth unto completion. We are not to frustrate over it or worry about the consequences it may have upon us when we are called to preach Christ, and Him crucified, resurrected and glorified. We are to count on the Lord through it all, and wait to see how He will reveal Himself and be glorified in the service we have rendered unto Him.
	As one commentator has stated, "Fearfully avoiding God's Word can cause us to miss the beauty of the life of obedience which God designed for us...'God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him.' And we can rest confidently in His promise to be with us and go before us. God won't fail or forsake us and therefore we shouldn't be afraid."
	Philippians 1:6 shows us one of the conditions which God has set before us to overcome this obstacle of fear. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
	There is such a move around today to build up self-confidence. SO many people have been given to the idea that it is in self-assurance that problems and fears can be faced. But that is not the manner which the scriptures lay before us to lose our fear as Christians. Rather than placing any confidence in our selves, we should be placing it all in Christ Jesus our Lord. What better place to find assurance and confidence than in the One who has conquered death forever, and has been crowned the righteous Lord of all creation. By Him were all things created that were created. He knows the beginning from the end, and He is willing and able and ready to bring us into the perfection of His very life on a daily basis, even on this earth, at this time. He will not forsake us, nor neglect us, and will never give up on us. As well, He has promised us to finish the work which He has begun in our lives, so what fear could we have before Him. We need to come into a greater knowledge of Christ, and not our selves. We need to place a greater emphasis upon Him at work, and less and less upon our meager abilities, which count for naught in the eternal purposes of God.
	II Tim 1:12-13 carries this truth into greater depth as we are told, For which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
	How many of us know the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle Paul did in order to encourage Timothy in this manner. We are familiar with the trials that the Apostle endured in the service he was called to render unto the Lord. He was not given an easy road in preaching Christ to the churches of the Gentiles. Yet, he did not moan in fear of the consequences he was facing as that faithful witness of Christ. Rather, he assured Timothy of the glory of Christ in that service. He called forth his intimate knowledge of the ability of Christ and the faithfulness of Christ to keep that which he had committed unto the Lord. There was no doubt in the Apostle Paul that the Lord would see him through to righteousness. Yes, the world may and did put the physical body to death, but no one and nothing can touch the true person, the spiritual life which belongs to the Lord. When God deems this world to no longer be fit for the physical expression of his called servant, God removes that faithful witness in order to be in his or her in immediate presence. 
	This is the confidence that is ours as we come into a deeper relationship with Christ. The sting of death is no more, and what more can this world do to us than to put to death our physical being that our spiritual being may be released to fellowship eternally with God on high. 
	James 1:5-8, relates the next condition provided by the Lord through His Holy Spirit in order for us to put aside the fear that so detracts from our relationship in Christ. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 
	There are several aspects that we need to consider in this verse. First, that we are to seek after wisdom in asking of the Lord. The wisdom that is fully opened unto us in Christ is that of His Holy Spirit operating in us unto the glory of God. Too often, we confuse the idea that we are to be wise of ourselves, and if we ask God to make us wise, He will do it. Rather, we are to seek after the very wisdom of God as He is supplied into our lives through the effectual ministry of the Holy Spirit. 
	There is no greater wisdom that we could experience than that of the living and eternal wisdom of the very God of Truth. What puniness we practice if we try to be wise before God and before man. All that we can do is to prove our own foolishness in rejecting God for less than the perfection of Christ. Yes, the world holds up all that is without Christ in order to try to find answers apart from the reality that Christ is the ONLY Way. The world will fall for all sorts of nonsense as long as Christ is not the focus. But, when He is the center of all our answers, the world calls us fool-hearty and crazy to rely on Him. Little do the comprehend that we are relying on the very being of the Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent One to be our wisdom in the midst of this present chaotic search for truth. Be not afraid to follow Christ, especially as He leads in the ways that seem to be foolish to this realm. Follow Him in all His truth and perfection and look not after the things of this world. Let our hearts be set in Him for our understanding and our guidance with no fear of the wrath of this world which will be heaped upon us.
	The second aspect of this verse is that we are to be unwavering in our faith after Christ. This means that we are not to vacillate like a boat adrift in the crashing waves of emotional upheaval. The fear that we allow to infest us will attack us at our emotional sensitivity. When we are afraid, it is the emotions which are being expressed, and in very irrational manners. Have you ever noticed that when we are afraid of something, we can not be reasoned with. All the explanations of why we should not fear may be very valid, but they do little to soothe the emotional upheaval of our spirits. This is where we need to rely upon God, in all the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to speak peace into our beings. As we listen to His soothing voice, as we obey His gracious Word of Life, so then are we calmed and refreshed by the reality that He is in charge of all things that befall us. We are in His hands and fully covered by His power to keep us unto Himself.
	When we are double minded, that is looking at the realm of our present worldly situation and at the spiritual realm of Christ, we are easily shaken in our faith in Christ. We need to be so set into Christ, that our vision of this present earth is only through the wisdom of the Lord as He makes known what is truly happening in our midst. Several weeks ago, Nadine gave an excellent example of how this truth operates in our daily life. When we see the problems and the circumstances and concentrate only upon them and how unable we are to bear up under them, then we are panic-stricken and blinded to the fact of what God is truly doing through each of the situations. However, when we look through the problems and see Christ, when we are not drawn away from the basis of Christ as He is being glorified, even through the seemingly worst of dilemmas, then we are not only at peace with the problems, but finding cause to rejoice in the Lord in midst of the predicaments. She used the example of a curtain of stringed beads in front of a light. When we concentrate on the beads, we see multitudes of barriers to the light. Our vision falls short of the glory of the light, and is lost in the many plastic baubles in front of us. If, however, we focus our eyes on the light behind those beads, the beads disappear. There is no more barrier to the light, and the brilliance of the light manifests itself to our eyes.
	So it is with Christ. As we focus our complete attention only on Him, the beads of the problems disappear and we lose our selves in the glory of Hiss Face of beauty and Joy and Peace no matter what else is chaotically happening around us. Be set in the Lord, and He will settle the issues of fear which plague our fuller knowledge of Him.
	This is an issue of trust in the Lord. Do we trust Him to take care of us as we obey? It is that simple. All the excuses are boiled down to that base consideration. If we trust the Lord, what do we have to fear? Our trust is developed as He is able to prove Himself in our lives, and He proves Himself as we are put into those trials where we have no choice but to seek after Him to be our safety and our refuge.
	We have the example of how this was worked into the disciples as they learned to trust in Christ, as recorded in Matt. 8:23-27. And when he entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! 
	The disciples were put into a situation where they were in fear of their lives. They had been with the Lord, under His tutelage, and witnesses of His glory as He did only that which pleased the Father, and yet they were afraid. They had not yet faced the trials which had put them to the test of how much they trusted Jesus with their very lives. This was the day that they were to be put into the situation of trust in God to keep them unto Himself, or perish in the waves of despair. They cried out in their faithlessness, and Christ met them in His faithfulness. He spoke peace, and they experienced His peace about them. Their fear was shown for the lack of trust that they had in the Lord, and He was faithful to met it in displaying His omnipotence to work mightily to their edification. 
	This is how He works in our lives. We are faced with the tempests of this earth, and yet we have Him as our protection. How many times have we cried unto Him, Lord if you don't handle this situation we perish? And, how many times as He met the situation and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and mercy. Daily, we are faced with situations that would bring the mightiest warriors to their knees, and yet God is faithful to provide through Christ Jesus who strengthens us.
	Allow Him the time and the freedom to work in our lives to put all fear away from us. We must be brought to the place where we are fully trusting in Him to be our life on this earth, and in that truth we will be fully in line with the will of the Father, to the glory of the Son. He has made every provision, as we have pointed out to overcome every obstacle to our knowledge of Christ in a living relationship, now let us seek after Him to make that relationship our only desire as we walk in obedience to the Word of God, by the power and guidance of His Wonderful Holy Spirit. 
	Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.