And who he picks and that sort of thing. But one of the things that is evidenced even in this word is that he’s calling you, and it really doesn’t matter what you think about yourself, and he is going to accomplish his word.

And it is one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do, following God. But it can be the hardest, yes, that you make in your life. And, you know, I just I have a heart for young people to make that. Yes. And to give their all before, before life serves up a whole lot of headaches. It is such an awesome thing to walk with God.

And when you when you actually apply the Word of God to your life, it brings you places you would have never arrived at. It just it. It keeps you from a lot of stupid mistakes, and it helps provide when you’ve found yourself in a hole or up against a wall, you know it is the most important thing you could do for yourself.

And I. I don’t know how to say it any clearer other than open your Bible and read it every day that God. All right. we have so many great people in this church, and, I just I want to thank, Greg Garrow, Bob Kirk, Richard Battle. they have been working on a fiber optic upgrade across the property.

And this this is required days and days and days of planning, install that sort of thing. And they’re doing it. Volunteer. I just.

It just blows me away how God provides and just puts things in people’s hearts. And that sort of thing is maybe not, very significant to anybody who just likes getting online, doesn’t care how it comes about. But there’s a lot of infrastructure that goes in so that you can just, look at your phone during service and, scroll while somebody’s talking up here, you know, and so we, we want to make sure that if you’re not interested here, at least you got something interested to look at.

So thank you, Greg. Bob, you guys are great. I got I got blessed last night. Beth, Sandoval, totally redid my office. Had me show up last night. you know, I, I loved Pastor Pat’s office, but it just it didn’t fit me, you know? And so, Beth, created something that just so blessed me last night and all the people that helped her.

I just can’t thank you enough. So that’s what’s going on. We got fantastic people like that. Jeff and Laura Buchanan. They’ve, recently moved up to, Shiloh and, you know, it’s a great place to live, so. They are so lucky. Yeah, but we are so lucky because there is so much that goes on up there.

And the the Lord knew he made this provision, and there is no way on earth I would have been able to give the orchard a second of my time in this last, you know, three, four months. And because of Jeff, I haven’t I haven’t even gone up there to see what the status of the fruit is and all this stuff.

I haven’t hardly done anything up there. Yeah. Yeah. They’re running goats up there now. Taking care of weeds. I mean, I’m just so blessed, by this couple and what they’re doing. And it’s an example of God building the church. And so, there is something for everyone. And that is, not just because we want to put people to work, but because God is building his church and part of building his church is transforming the world.

And the world is full of brokenness, because of something called sin. Sin is at work in the earth. So every issue in your life, you can connect it to sin. There is not there is not one issue that goes on that doesn’t have a, finger to point at, at the work of sin. And so we are, not ignorant of that.

And I just I’m so proud of the effort that has been going on over the last, I don’t know, a couple months, especially where we’ve been focusing in on evangelize ism. last week, there was an effort put together at Pine Crest. You know, it wasn’t a church thing. It was just people being creative and, you know, wanting to share the word.

And the result of it was, you know, I would say 30 people got saved. 15 people got baptized. I, I got to be up there.

The numbers are continuing to climb. people have been reaching out. They want to get baptized, and and they don’t want to get baptized in a church. You know, there’s all this church, that kind of stuff that, people are holding on to and, maybe unhealthy ways, but there is a, a, a draw right now. And so I think August 14th, we’re going to have another baptism up at pine Crystal Lake.

we have it scheduled as a family day up there. And so we’re just we’re going to keep opening, the door for people that want to say yes. And I just I want to thank jazz. Holly Mayor Dan Sullivan, you know, those, Angelina and Brom, they were up there, young adults that came up. It was. It was really a great, a great time.

And I, I was uncertain what to expect, you know, and this idea came to me as Santa Claus sitting by the lake. I was like, can it get any weirder?

It’s, But kids loved it and came over and took pictures and. Yeah, God only knows. So we just got to get out of the way sometimes. All right, well, this idea of sin in the world, sometimes we, don’t know what to think. And so when somebody says that sin is causing all of this trouble in the world, how do you know that?

Why are you so confident in that? The main reason that I know that is because of the work it caused in my own life, and the transformation that God has done in my life. That testimony by itself is enough for me to tell you that sin is at work in the world. We cannot be ignorant of it, but what we are talking about is evangelism and evangelize.

ISM is about people’s lives being changed for good. It’s about removing the snags of emotional stress and disappointment caused by sin, and bringing forth their best version of who they are. When we say all you need is Jesus, what we are saying is he made a way for you to be the best you possible. Yeah, and that means lots of change.

And that means that there is something good for you that you haven’t even thought of yet, that you’re not able to even imagine it. You’re maybe basing good for you based on things you see, man, those people look really nice or really happy or that you know a place to live looks looks like that would be the right spot for me.

You know, that kind of stuff is nice to think about. It’s nice to dream about. It’s nice to see, but it is not where you find your fulfillment and where you become the best. You. So when we are talking about evangelism today, I want to talk about something called fear.

Our call to action for evangelism is a call to make the world a better place. By bringing people into this life Jesus has prepared for them. If we read out of, Mark chapter four, verses 26 and 32, it says, and he said, Jesus, where on two shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what comparison shall we compare it?

It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth up and become becometh greater than all herbs, and shoot it out great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.

So Jesus is making a comparison here about what the kingdom of God is like. And so he gives us this illustration of a tree supposed to be the largest tree that comes from the smallest seed. All right. There’s a lot of connections that we can make from this parable. it’s not entirely my focus today, the parable itself.

But what we need to understand is that our evangelistic effort and our mobilizing of our hearts, and this desire to overcome fear from this, is so that we become like a a tree that provides safety, that provides shadow and covering, that provides a place for rest, for people to recover, for people to find strength. Our entire effort is about what we can become, which is this kingdom of God.

Jesus is asking us to become like him in the earth, and he is our covering.

The kingdom of God is love, which understood more completely is simply righteousness. Peace, and joy. Right? That is what God is calling us to be a part of Wednesday night. If you made it to the field for our worship night, I shared that we were that I was, reading a lot in first John and I wanted to read a scripture there as well.

chapter four, verse 16 through 18, where it says, God is love. And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment. And he that fears is not made perfect in love. So the greatest revival that the earth has seen is unfolding right now, and God is setting this revival up by his love. He is revealing himself in a miraculous way for those who have been in the church, at least this church, you have seen a lot of changes over the last ten years.

It has. It has been nothing short of miraculous. And sometimes you have to just step back and remind yourself what has beenIt has. It has been nothing short of miraculous. And sometimes you have to just step back and remind yourself what has been unfolding. But it is remarkable. It’s remarkable that what we prayed for today to send teams to North Carolina has been spoken ahead of time, and we are not making any of this stuff happen. We’re just preparing ourselves.

Let the word speak to our lives right? Well, with this unfolding of God’s love, the greatest weapon our enemy can muster to oppose God’s revival is fear, and it is flooding out of the hearts of Christians. Fear is a crippling, work of Satan. It’s a crippling work in our souls. Fear is something that we cannot, It run away from at times.

And it causes us, almost. it’s almost like wrestling when you’re putting a submission hold. Right. And fear will do that to you where just it pins you, where you just yield, and you don’t. You don’t move anymore. You don’t. You don’t try and get out of this mess, this jam, whatever that is. But the revival are occurring now is of his perfect love.

This is the good news that God is awakening hearts to his perfect love. But this also means that there might be bad news for a lot of people out here. Because you need this perfect love.

That pain, that fear, that uncertainty is not God and where it exists, it means that there needs to be a greater revelation of his love. This is essentially the signal for our lives that, hey God, I need an encounter with you. Your fear.

Fear comes in two flavors. There’s this spirit of fear that just hovers through, planet Earth. Here. And then there’s this holy fear. John Bavier writes a great book of God, and he he breaks down the, differences of these two, elements of fear in remarkable ways. And you got to check it out. But for today’s message, we need to understand that fear is at work and it effects even our step towards evangelism.

it is such an important part. And we need to understand how and why. Because the call Jesus has on our lives with this incredible plan to remove sin from the earth must not be something we are afraid to embrace. Yet fearfulness does prevent this message from getting out, and we want to add fuel to our fire. To overcome this snag.

So do we see it?

Yeah, you got it. Got the car. Go, Larry. Do we see it? Do we see it, or are we excusing it, or does it drive us to the father and to evangelism?

America has a fear problem. 43% of adults state they are more anxious about life in 2024. This may not catch your attention, but literally every other person you walk by is dealing with anxiety. Anxiety is a display of fear. This is a lot of fear. Fear about relationships, economy, monthly bills, deadlines, etc.. Is it even possible to be all of these fears in our life?

Is it possible for us to walk in peace and wholeness in the midst of so much uncertainty, so many demands, all of these things?

Yes, yeah, it is. It is. Not only is it possible, but it’s what God is going to establish in his church. A fearless ness to walk through life, to, speak the message of life. Because people that make up God’s church are going to know who they are. They’re going to know who they serve. They’re going to understand the, how Satan’s tactics work.

They’re going to recognize, sooner where a battle is forming, where the storm is raging. But you you have to understand that the world just wants you to deal with it. Just manage the fear.

When we look at what people are afraid of, we got the fear of missing out. Right? That that FOMO.

We got fear of failure. We got fear of change. We got fear of death. People and insecurity. Insecurity. You hear that all the time. I just don’t want to be around people, you know or you’re seeing it to me, right? I’m being prophesied about my insecurity. Right. And and who I am. That kind of fear, it it works and it knocks and it and it exists in a real way.

But it is not God.

Our ability to evangelize will be based on our ability to recognize a spirit of fear at work. So what is fear? Defined fear is a state of terror experienced in anticipation of some sort of pain or danger, usually accompanied by a desire to flee or flight.

It’s an anticipation of pain or danger, and it typically has a response to flee or flight. That is when you know a spirit of fear. Is that work in your life. When you’re asked to do something. And you’d rather run, you’d rather walk on the other side of the street and confront those difficult places or those difficult people in your life.That’s a spirit of fear at work. You are going to have to testify about the Lord Jesus Christ and his great love to people that have hurt you.

You’re going to have to confront difficult places in this hour because it’s now that God is pouring out His Spirit at a time of incredible need. Our world is walking out fear, and the only way that they know how to deal with it is to avoid situations: isolation, paranoia, phobias. We have nonstop reasons for why we’re not going to do something.

But just think about what the scripture is saying. When we read First John 4, there is a call for His perfect love. And so if we are experiencing fear, then we need to draw close to God, not because He’s helped us in the past, but because we know He is love and we know that He’s capable of helping us in these times of need. We cannot live our life out of fear.

And if we do, what evangelism are we bringing to people? What testimony are we bringing to people? We can’t be cowards. We can’t be timid. That is going to prevent people in desperate need from knowing the great love of God. We have to be built up in faith and the knowledge of who we serve. And I am just so stirred and grateful again for how God loves us.

I know how easy it is sometimes to just walk through life. But when God asks you to say yes, you have to say yes with the understanding that He’s got your back. Because it is never going to be easy if we’re going to step into the devil’s playground and start changing things. But we need people that are willing to change things. People that are not afraid of people but fear the Lord.

There’s a difference. It’s funny when you look up the word fear in several scriptures. It’s the same word. When it says, hey, don’t fear man but fear God, it’s the same word. But there are two different definitions of that word. The first is a state of terror where you fear what’s going on around you. You fear your environment. You fear the people. You fear the situations that are taking place. You don’t know what you’re going to do. That uncertainty, or you don’t want to look bad because you didn’t perform well. All that kind of stuff, that is terror. That’s being afraid. But to fear God, the second part of that definition is to reverence and to worship respectfully. That comes from an understanding of who God is.

Fear of rejection is maybe an easy connection to make with evangelism. I don’t want somebody to tell me to get out of here. That’s not comfortable. So you can understand that. But that fear of rejection is going to lead you into unhealthy places. You’re not going to do things that you need to do because you don’t want to be rejected. It speaks to a place of identity crisis. You don’t know who you are. You don’t know who God is. That’s why this encounter of a more perfect love that He is calling us to is so important.

How about a fear of loneliness? Not being able to get through life without having people around you. That’s typically because we need validation. We need people to recognize us, speak about our strengths, encourage us, that kind of stuff. We depend on those social interactions, which is a good thing. The Bible tells us that we should all prophesy, exhortation, edification, and comfort. That’s encouragement. We’re supposed to be speaking encouragement into each other’s lives. We’re made to strengthen one another, but if that is not put in check, we depend on people, not God. We need to have God anchoring our life, not people.

Sometimes there’s a fear of being wrong, and this is going to touch on evangelism a bit. If you’re not convinced that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, that becomes a really big problem and could be a reason why you’re afraid to evangelize. Because you’re dealing with the doubt of this faith right now. Is this real? Is this true? That kind of battle? Don’t be ashamed of it. Seek truth. Search for God. It says seek and you will find. God is confident that if you start searching and asking for answers, you’ll discover Him. The question is, are you? Maybe you don’t want to discover that it’s true. Maybe you’re hoping, actually, that if you just do enough, you’ll get through life enjoying both worlds. The further along you get, though, the more damaging the sin becomes. If you do not put sin in check, it will cripple your life. Thank God for redemption, right? Thank God for redemption.

I love my brother Sam because his life has so much in it. There’s so much gifting that God has put in him. He’s walked a long road, but he keeps saying yes and he keeps standing up. The effect of sin in our lives causes deep wounds. The people that we’re going to be evangelizing to, they’re going to have deep wounds, trauma, real things. People are going to therapy because of real traumas, not made-up things in their head. They’ve suffered pain and sorrow, things that cut, things that we have to walk away from and we can’t deal with maybe in our current frame of mind. But God intends to heal every area of our life. And it may be a journey of constant bringing yourself before the Lord unashamed because you know the love of the Father. You cannot let the spirit of fear prevent you from repentance. And when we evangelize to people, they have to have hope that God is going to redeem their life. He’s going to take them and transform all of the things that need to be transformed so that they can be the best version of themselves that they were created to be. This is how fear affects evangelism. It cripples us from testifying. But the holy fear of God is driven by understanding His great love, who He is.

In Romans, there’s a section of Scripture where it’s talking about mankind and there being no one good, no one righteous, no one able. And then it ends with this one more line that says, and no one feared God. It’s interesting that our lives are full of fear except for God. The only thing we should fear and reverence, we don’t. Everything else we do, though. So curious that any person being drawn to God, they’re not going to have any ability to relate to that. That means nothing to them because God is not really a thing to them, or maybe just something they’ve heard about. So it’s not going to exist until that revelation comes of who God is.

Jesus was on the boat with His disciples in Mark 4:40-41. The storm takes shape. They’re all panicking, fearful. And Jesus says, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? So He’s calling out their fear. What is your problem? And then the next verse says, and they feared exceedingly and said one to another, what manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him? What’s remarkable about this set of scriptures is this first term why are you so fearful? It’s the Greek word Delos, which means cowardly, afraid, timid. But then they encountered God. Still, the waters calm the seas. The elements obeyed Him, and it says, and they feared exceedingly. They had a transformation of fear in this moment. The word used here is phobeo, which means reverence, worship, profound respect. The transformation occurred at the display of who God was. Your fear cannot be transformed until you encounter who God is. And your moment in life today cannot be your moment tomorrow. You have to have this encounter with God every day. That pursuit of God must continue in a steadfast way where you draw close to Him, where you want the encounter, you have to walk with Him. They were walking with Him before the storm came, but it was in the storm that He revealed who He was, and it was in the storm that their fear was changed from timidity and cowardice to one of reverence and understanding.

Our fear of God propels us to evangelize because we have encountered the truth, the way, the life that does set people free. It set us free. It is so true. It is so real. It is unconditional. It pursues us no matter where we are, no matter what we’re doing. God is after your heart because He wants you to be the best version of you. And fear will always prevent that. Fear is evidence that you need a deeper revelation of God. It is the time for us to fall to our knees and say, God, reveal Yourself to me. May I know You and the power of Your resurrection. Will You reveal that love to me that propels me to move through every fear, every situation, every obstacle that enables me to say yes, I will answer the call. God, I will follow. I will yield to what You’re saying. I will give You my heart. It is there that the transformation occurs.

Remember, fear comes from an anticipation of pain or danger. But holy fear comes from that place of knowing who God is and what He is capable of. What manner of man is this? They said that was revelation. As we are stepping forward in this next season, we take one foot after another, one step after another, putting one foot in front of the other. It’s something we’re all doing. Keep doing it.

And beware of your heart in this process. This whole book of First John is about abiding in God’s love and the fullness of God’s love. But it ends with, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. That has to do with our heart. Let your identity be in Him. Let your heart be satisfied by Him. Let every talent He has given you be used for Him. Let every ask that He brings to your life be for His glory. And do not accept a lie of the enemy that you’re to be mediocre. That is a spirit ofThat has to do with our heart. Yes. Let your identity be in Him. Let your heart be satisfied by Him. Let every talent He has given you be used for Him. Let every ask that He brings to your life be for His glory. Do not accept a lie of the enemy that you’re to be mediocre. You are good; that is a spirit of fear affecting your life.

God is not asking you to be a lesser version than He created you to be. Your step of faith may look different than somebody else’s, so you must not compare. But your step of faith will bring fulfillment to your life. If you are unfulfilled, you are not encountering the love of God.

We need the revelation. It comes in the storm. So do not think it strange the fire that you may be walking through. It’s God’s time to reveal Himself to you. This is the message we are testifying about. This is what we are embracing. And fear cannot be a part of the equation. Let our hope, our trust, our confidence be in the God we know.

I am so excited about the testimonies happening, but I am not ignorant of the challenge of this message.

I am going to represent in South Carolina this week, along with a team that knows the God they serve. And I’m not going to fear whether my prophetic words are jumbled in a mess or whether no one receives what I have to say. Amen. Do the same. Wherever you’re at this week, let God reveal through His love who He wants you to bless.

This week. Amen. Love somebody. Don’t be afraid to talk to somebody. Look for the person that you’re falling in love with. Don’t just talk to everybody. Look for the person that you’re falling in love with, so they know how much you love them and how much God loves them. Don’t put pressure on yourself. If it’s fear, it’s not God.

Start asking God to fill you with love for somebody. And we’re going to be able to see our world become the place God intended: righteousness, peace, and joy. A big tree that people are taking shade under. That’s what you’re going to become. But you have to grow there first. You have to let your roots go deep. You have to allow the word to shape your life.

Without it, you’re not going to be a tree that provides shade. Right? Make it so. All right, all right. Love you guys.

Amen. And we’d like to invite you all as an extension of our time of worship to our fellowship hall across the way for lunch. We believe in doing life together and being family, so please join us. And otherwise, we’ll see you next week.