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Sep 29, 2019

Fear Itself

Passage: Isaiah 43:1-7

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Isaiah

Category: Grace Brevard

What causes us fear? “Waters” and “fires” in life, things that threaten whatever we hold most dear, all succumb to the greater power of God who not only controls those things, but rescues us from them and renews us into who we were meant to be and into a fearless time and place, with him forever.

order of worship

PRELUDE: Shane and Shane - Psalm 46

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 27:3-5

READING: I John 4:9,16, 18-19

MUSIC: 

PRAYER: Resting on God (The Valley of Vision)  

LEADER:  O Most High and Glorious God, The world is before us each day and we are weak and distressed. But in You we are firm as the eternal hills.

ALL:  Let the weeds that grow in our hearts be cut at their roots.  Abide in us, O gracious God and comfort our hearts with the finished work of Christ.

LEADER: His obedience for our lawlessness. His righteousness for our dead works. His suffering for our peace. His Resurrection for new life

ALL:  Holy Spirit, Grant us each day to know Your living Word and continually work in us the hope of the good news and the beauty of Jesus. 

CARE / GRATITUDE / MISSIONAL LIVING:

MESSAGE: Fear Itself

CENTRAL TEXT: Isaiah 43:1-7

1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. 4 Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. 5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. 6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

ILLUSTRATION: Zach Williams - Fear Is A Liar

RESPONSE: 

Confession (Book of Common Prayer)

ALL: Eternal God, in whom we live and move and have our being, whose face is hidden from us by our sins, and whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts: cleanse us from all our offenses, and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires, that with reverent and humble hearts we may draw near to you, confessing our faults, confiding in your grace, and finding in you our refuge and strength; through Jesus Christ your Son.

Assurance of Pardon (Psalm 103:8,10-12)

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast

10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.   

BENEDICTION: Romans 8:31-39

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Psalm 34:4,7,9
  • Deuteronomy 31:8
  • 1 Peter 5:6

MEDIA:

9.29.19 Album

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What are some things that you are afraid of?
    1. Why? What are you truly scared is going to happen?
  2. Not go to your true deep-seeded fears, and think about Augustin’s thought that our fears (and anxieties and depressions) are just the smoke that rises from our idols.
    1. Example: Fear of financial ruin reveals that my hope and security is in money, or at least in what money can provide, rather than God.
  3. How can this apply to other fears like health, family, reputation?
  4. Describe how fear doesn’t reveal faithlessness mis-placed faith.
  5. What does fear reveal about what we ACTUALLY believe about God, ourselves and our situations?
  6. Isaiah 43 doesn’t just tell us to “stop it” but gives us beautiful truths to overwhelm the fears that tend to overwhelm us. Look at these truths and explain how believing them would help our fears:
    1. Who God Is: The LORD; The Holy One; Savior
    2. What God does: Redeems; Calls us by name; Brings us home
    3. Who We Are: “Mine”; Precious; Honored; Loved
    4. What We Do: Fear Not; Come Home
  7. How does this shed light on 1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear”?
  8. Ultimately my fear grows out of a belief that God either isn’t good enough, wise enough or powerful enough to do what is best..but how does Romans 8:32 prove the opposite...”He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
  9. Look then at how Psalm 34 (on page 2) re-defined and re-orients our fears, essentially saying that “Perfect Fear Cast Out Fear” (in other words, how can proper “fear of God” eclipse our other fears?)

QUOTES:

  • Augustine talking about how fear is the smoke that rises from the fire we make to our idols.
  • "Unless you believe the gospel, everything you do will be driven by either pride or fear." – Timothy J. Keller
  • “Do one thing every day that scares you.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
  • “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” - Plato
  • “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” - C.S. Lewis (A Grief Observed)
  • “A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.” - J.R.R Tolkein 

BOOKS / ARTICLES

SERMONS / TALKS 

With Us To Make A Way by David Plant (Gospel in Life)

Isaiah 43

Fire! Fire! Fire! By Charles Spurgeon

Isaiah 43