Living Without Fear: Navigating Uncertain Times with Faith

A guy named Billy. Some said every church is missional or it isn’t even a church. That is a really important statement. And it’s something that we believe, with all our heart. What did I fellowship? is not a church that just exists in Miwok village. We’re a church that has been designed with purpose from its inception. We’re a church that is walking out a call of God.

today’s service, has, has like it started off with just this incredible, Holy Spirit power. I was, I was weeping, singing that first song, and then we started getting into like worship and all of a sudden there was hindrance. All of a sudden there was a little bit of dealing going on in the background and and walking that out.

I’m thinking in my mind, oh my gosh, this is this is, so awkward right now. God, what are we what are we doing? You know, but that kind of, that kind of reality is important for us to be okay with. Because life is going to be messy when God starts fixing things. And that is really what we’re gearing up for.

I would like it to be perfectly clean and organized where you know, God wants to set someone free. And it is just this beautiful prayer. a moment of transformation. And from that point forward, you know, they’re walking with halos over their head and, you know, doing beautiful things for the rest of their life. But it is not going to look like that or hardly ever.

There might be like, a few people that encounter God with that grace and beauty, but it’s it’s likely going to be embarrassing on occasion. It’s likely going to affect, your willingness to identify with whatever is taking place. And, you know, it might be easier for us to take a few steps away from a situation. So. All right, that’s them.

Okay? Not me. that kind of stuff is what is going to have to happen for God to fix the mess that we’re in right now. But the beauty of where we’re at is it doesn’t matter the mess. We’re in God’s hands. And so today we’re going to be, stepping into this season, and shell and I are going to try and, tag team back and forth to see how Holy Spirit builds this church.

Yeah. I just want to add to that because, I’ve had a couple of experiences in, in service over the last couple of years when I don’t know about you, but I’m a musical person, as most of you know. And so because of that, I hear all of the things that are wrong. you know, I have some inside jokes with a few, you know, a few people, you know, we make eye contact about something or whatever, and it never fails, never fails.

when things are a little frustrating for me in the middle of worship, something’s irritating me about something or other that God just shows up, and he reminds me that it’s about him and not about any of that stuff. And he’s really good at doing it and meeting me in these spectacular places when everything around me is messy and it’s not working out like I thought it would work or it should work, and he shows up just to make sure that I remember that I’m not in control of it, that nothing that I can do is going to change what he is doing in that moment, whether I’m distracted, like somebody hits a wrong note,

someone sings something wrong, something’s off in the sound, the words aren’t working and I’m just frustrated. He’s like, why do you worry so much? Because when I show up, things happen. Lives change. Your life changes. Even in the middle of the not so pretty and the messy. And so when Jonathan was saying that I just was reminded every time I’ve had those frustrating moments, God just shows up.

He’s like, nope, nope. This is how I do it. And it’s in the mess. And it’s when you’re not in control and you cannot do anything else that he does the best things. Amen. So God is building his church and he is establishing his way in the earth and that way in the earth is his kingdom. His kingdom is the point of all of this.

He is not just trying to save people from hell. He is trying to establish his authority in the earth. And he did it through Jesus Christ. And he is, like Shirley said in that scripture last week, has been given all authority in heaven and earth. So go and make disciples in the earth, right? Go and make disciples of the nations, so that authority was established by Jesus Christ himself.

He did what no, created being could do, right? Angels failed. Satan rebelled against God. Humankind failed. Adam and Eve, right, sinned in the garden. It hasn’t happened. He had to send his only son to accomplish authority in the earth. That authority has been given to us. We are stepping into an amazing time and it is because of what Jesus is doing.

So him building the church is about him bringing his kingdom to the earth, him doing what we need done in this world is about us submitting to the work of the Kingdom of God and the authority that’s in it. So today we are positioning ourselves this, this message, church on a mission has some really important things that God has been doing, in the background with, with us, our leaders in the church, several things have been falling into place, and we’re really just along for the ride, hoping everybody else will be to.

What? Position ourselves, ourselves for the harvest God has prepared. And to be put in position means you understand your purpose. To be to be put into a position. You understand your assignment. You understand maybe how it all works. And so the body of Christ was never meant to be led by a person except the Lord Jesus Christ. So he is building his church with all of us, and all of us have a an obligation, a responsibility in order for the church to reveal Christ properly.

When we don’t, God is not revealed the way he wants to be, and that is through his perfect love, through his perfect righteousness, through his perfect way. That’s what we get to be a part of. I read an article recently, it said Conservative Californians versus the culture. And it it highlights this clash of cultures. But it it brought up some really remarkable points that through history, Christians have been the change agents, the and that when you decide to be a change agent, you will be hated.

So it is no coincidence for those who are saying yes to God that you are suffering or dealing with opposition, torment, affliction, all those things, they come at people. But when you are saying yes to God, you got to be understanding your assignment because you might draw back if you don’t, you might grow weary and check out.

You got to understand the position you’re in and the assignment you face. You know this this article, starts by recognizing that there are voices for truth. That are hopeless to change the culture and have resolved to simply do the best they can with what they have in front of them. They’re just going to focus on their career.

They’re just going to focus on their family. They’re just going to focus on their daily living.

That is good for the short run. That means for a period of time, you may have success in that. Those arenas that I just talked about, but it is not good for the long run. He brings up America’s founding. That founding was driven by Christian men that believed in the freedom to serve God, the freedom for men to to walk out life, that all men were created equal.

Right? It had this it had this essence of the kingdom of God here on earth. Right. There was a righteousness that they entailed to bring out of that has come great blessing for many people. Then there was another point in history where slavery had to be dealt with. The change agents for that again came from Protestants, the church Christians recognizing an evil in the world that had to change.

And that was a costly decision when Abraham Lincoln held that line and was willing to go to war for that line, people lost their lives. Families were were captive to that result. You know, loss, you know, destruction. Everything that comes with the ugliness of dealing with evil in our world.

We are walking out a time where God is calling us to the harvest. He is saying, it is time. It is time to, go out, share the message of the kingdom, be life and light to the world. Invite people into what you know, what you are aware of, the Kingdom of God and we are seeing the same clash occur today that has occurred in the past.

When evil is targeted and it doesn’t want to let go of its hold.

It gets ugly and we’re watching that play out in today’s world. So positioning is a part of mission, and that’s what we’re getting ready to dive into today.

I believe when we are called into this place of harvest, we have to understand that God is calling us to people right? He’s calling us to people. He’s calling us to our families, to our friends, to our neighbors, to our coworkers. But he’s also calling us to people that maybe we don’t like, maybe we don’t get along with, maybe that irritate us.

So some of them may like us, some of them may not. But if we understand the call and we are positioned for it, we are ready for whatever God puts in our path. And whoever God puts in our path. It’s really easy to speak to and evangelize people that we like. Come on. This neighbor that I really like, I have no problem talking to.

So I really, I really care about this person. They’re such a great person. I’ve gotten to know them. And that’s someone who God’s calling you to. But what about the other side of the street? The neighbor there that dogs bark all night long and they’re rude to you when you say hello, and everything about them irks you the wrong way.

God’s calling us. He’s not calling us just to the easy things. He’s calling us to everybody that he’s putting in our path. He’s calling us to be able to see them, how Jesus saw them, and not just through our own lens, in our own eyes. And we have to be okay with the people that he’s calling us to, whether they like us or not.

That is a reality. We have to be okay with it. But he’s putting in place things and that’s what we really want to speak to today, that he’s putting us things in place and positions us for this season of harvest. He’s asking us to do three things to hear the call. He’s asking us to unite with each other and to work the game plan.

Right. First, we have to understand the call of God. We have to be aware. We have to hear it. We have to recognize it. In first John 217, it says, this world is fading away along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. We are called first and foremost to follow God.

Our focus has got to shift. We have to be following and pursuing what pleases God, not all of the other things we have to understand this. This is like first and foremost, we’re not going to get anywhere with reaching out to anybody. We’re not gonna get anywhere with evangelism or outreach or sharing the message of God. If we do not understand that our focus, first and foremost, must be to his call, is to do what pleases him, to get our eyes and our minds off of all of the other things that has happening in the world the things, the chaos, the evil, the things that Jonathan’s talking about, the clashes of things.

We have to understand it and be ready for it. But that can’t be our focus. We have to first and foremost hear this call to keep our eyes on what pleases him. You know, in that same set of scriptures, he says that the hour has come. And that last hour is here. We are walking out our faith with this understanding that the last hour is here, and all that means is that take the opportunity to fall in love with him and to give him everything by doing so, you have put yourself in a place of safety, a place of protection and comfort and rest.

Part of what we are supposed to be as the church is a refuge in this world.

Thursday, as I was preparing for this message, I really was impressed. About a vision that really brought this church to where it’s at and. It was shared with me, but it was it was not anything I received in my own right. But it is something I, I know to be true. And I, I walk in this understanding today.

But the amazing part about this vision is that it was it was given to the founding pastor at Munich Motor Lodge in 1973. Out of that vision, things took place. This church put a plan together to build up here to buy property up here. God. And that whole story orchestrated every detail. We’re not going into that today, but at the same time, same year, another man got the same vision.

His name was David Wilkerson. And he wrote a book about that vision. And I.

I think it is so interesting how God does stuff because he he put this on my heart. We have in our own house, prophets that have, been providing, glimpses of what God is showing them. And it brings confirmation to these things. We had a very random individual call us yesterday to share, some dreams that they have been having.

And this person doesn’t go to the church. But so interesting, in light of what God has put on my heart here, even to talk about this vision. But I believe that that that God is preparing the church for the world to change. And we can’t be afraid. We can’t be worried. We can’t be overwhelmed with anxiety. We just get to follow God and have a good time doing it.

We’re going to keep playing our soccer games. We’re going to keep, you know, celebrating birthdays and buying houses and, you know, fixing property across this. That’s not changing. What is changing is your love for God and your commitment to allow his kingdom to be established in your heart. That cannot be on the back burner. That’s what we are being invited into, and that’s what we’re going to be inviting people into in this next season.

If I could, have Psalms 37 show up on the projector there, I wanted to read this with you guys. It says, don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong. For, like grass, they soon fade away like spring flowers. They soon wither. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Let’s go to the next slide. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday. Be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for him to act.

Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Now, I’m sure all of us can draw some connections with what’s happening today and all of these things, but we cannot worry. Last year I preached out of John or Matthew 24, and Jesus says, repeatedly in that section of Scripture, don’t worry. And then he goes on to tell you what’s going to happen before he returns, right?

Wars and rumors of war, the hearts of men growing, cold, waxing cold. It says that kind of world, right, is going to surround when his return is imminent. But he says, don’t worry. We walk in the same confidence today. We don’t know the day or the hour. So we’re not going to try and tell you tomorrow he’s coming.

But we do know the seasons, and we do know that as long as we live our lives committed to following him, then we got nothing to fret. We don’t have to worry about evil people prospering. We don’t have to worry about, the world going crazy and chaos taking place in evil schemes at work and political places and those sorts of things.

We’re in the covering of God is our refuge. So then I was reminded that out of this vision, you know, we’re supposed to be this place of refuge and.

What was so cool about the start of this church is people were inspired, inspired to write songs. And some of the most profound scriptures were put to song. One of those scriptures was Psalms 46. And if you were ever in the senior choir, you’d probably be able to start that start that song off with me. It goes something like this.

God is our refuge and strength of every present. Help in the time of trouble, therefore, will not we fear, though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried to the midst of the sea, though the waters roar, though the man shall we will not fear. For God is our refuge and strength. Yeah, right.

All right. That is Psalms 46. All right. The mountains shake, the waters roar. We will not be moved. Right. We cannot fear, though. That song will have a hard time resonating in today’s culture.

What it did was put to memory the Word of God. And then I remembered that Psalms 91 was made a song, and we got our Sam co team learning that right now. And I bet some people could start singing that. I couldn’t pull it off, that there’s a weird bridge and that one that makes it tough to really recall the memory, but, again, a fun song, but the word of God was put to memory, and I just feel like God is going to be doing that with our young people again, putting the Word of God to memory because they recognize its power.

They recognize its truth. They recognize that out of the Word of God there is life, strength, hope, protection, safety. It is a comfort. It is a guide. It is the absolute truth. And as we grow in our walk with him, we just discover the reality of that bold declaration like never before. The Word of God is absolutely true.

So that vision. Said a few important or interesting things. There were five major calamities. He talked about economic collapse coming that there would be a time for plenty for store for preparation. Then he talked about nature having labor pains. And we are watching that unfold natural disasters here. He talked about a flood of filth and a baptism of dirt in America.

Now, this was in 1973. At that time, television was very well monitored and regulated, right? It protected families from information that was not helpful. It had a high standard in terms of moral projection in this prophecy. He said that was going to go away and that we would start to see, pornographic things made available on demand.

We would start to see, right, the evening hours shift from being kid-friendly to, you know, satisfying the cravings that, you know, this world is full of it, right? It talked about it, talked about our education. bringing sex education into the schools and to start using pornographic material. Right. So all of that is unfolding right now.

And this was given in 1973. It talked about rebellion in the home. Now we’re just seeing more and more fruit of that, right? A child rebelling against their parents. Well, that has turned into spawning more and more brokenness in our world. It says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Right. And so that kind of behavior, left unchecked, is like witchcraft taking place in our culture.

Thank God for his mercy. Yeah, but it’s only by his mercy that any of this gets fixed. The final thing he saw was a persecution against true spiritual Christians. I do not like that. That is a reality, but it is what Jesus said was going to happen. So this isn’t some man’s idea to, you know, pull the carpet out from under people or to, you know, cause fear.

But it is preparation to say, will you be prepared to take on that persecution, to take on the hardships for the sake of what is right? Will you be willing to stand up in this hour, when a lot of people are saying, I don’t believe my effort makes a difference? We’re sending our best across the seas. How is that affecting you?

I’m dealing with a soccer team right now, and they lost their best player. He graduated. And they had so much confidence in him that half of them are talking about not coming back. They’re afraid to lose or afraid of the work or afraid of what it might cost them. That’s a lack of leadership in our culture, and we, the church, cannot draw back from this moment and call to lead.

And we have to recognize that it may be a price I’m not willing to pay.

But is it what God is asking me to do? I’ll pay the price. Give me the courage, Lord. Give me the strength. Give me the help. Yeah. And this is the thing that’s going to make us different. Because this is going to happen to every it’s going to happen worldwide. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.

The thing that’s going to make us different is living without worry. That’s what’s going to set us apart. Living without fear, living like living without fear. Not just trying to talk about not being fearful. Like living without fear. That’s different. And we have to understand that although there’s stuff that may come down that God is preparing his people to face whatever it is that he has us to face, and we are going to be ready to face it because he’s given us everything that we need.

This is not a place of fear. It’s a place of preparation. We have to understand that when he tells us these things and gives us warning on these things, it’s not to scare us. It is to prepare us so we’re not caught off guard, though, when it starts to happen, we’re like, oh, I remember hearing that that might happen.

I’m not going to get all twisted up about it. I’m going to go to prayer. I’m going to war for the people in my family. I’m going to war for my neighbors. I’m going to war for my church. I’m going to war for my community. Because there is a generation who needs Jesus. There is a generation who is crying out.

That is in the midst of this torment and despair, and all they need is someone to reach out and be different and say, you don’t have to live in fear and worry just because everything around you is in turmoil. There is something better, there is something greater, and we have the message of life. You guys, we have the message of Jesus Christ who came to die for you and for me and for them, so that they can be rescued from the darkness that they are in.

I believe that even in the times they were cut out, coming and darkness, it says it grows. Darkness will cover the earth. I don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like, but I know we’re seeing some of it now, and there are people that need to be brought out of darkness into light, and that is what he is calling us to do.

He’s calling us to hear this call. He’s calling us to unite in this together because it cannot be one voice. It’s not going to be effective if it’s one person. It’s not going to be effective if it’s one voice or two voices or things here or things there. It’s like Don said, it’s coming into a room and being a light that dispels darkness in every corner, in every corner.

That is what it is. You know that darkness black is just the absence of light. That’s what it is there. It isn’t a color in and of itself. It isn’t a thing in and of itself. The definition of darkness is the absence of light. And all we have to do to dispel the darkness is to be light, to bring light, to bring it wherever we go.

And we have to be aware that although things are getting crazy, he is in us. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. And with that, I move in to what God has calledAnd we have to be aware that although things are getting crazy, he is in us. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. And with that, I move into what God has called me, not out of fear, but knowing who I am, knowing the authority that God has given me, knowing the place that I am called, and walking into that place with all power, all authority, the present and the power of God, bringing light and life and deliverance, and doing it together, doing it as a church, a united church of God, who will prevail against the gates of hell.

Man. Okay, so like first John 2:17 said, the world is fading away along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. What an awesome promise, you guys, and doing it together is what we have to continue to fight for. Being in unity is going to allow the work of God to expand and to reach more and more people.

That is what we are stepping into. That is what God is directing us towards. And today we’re kind of putting another part of the game plan positioning that God has given us into play. And it’s coming out of this focus to reach the harvest. We want to position our church to be able to not only handle the harvest, but to be a part of that harvest.

And so now we’re focusing our resources there, and we’re doing essentially what the disciples did in Acts 1:18-25, where they saw a hole in their leadership and they said, hey, we need to fill this hole. And out of that came Matthias. Yeah, yeah. So we are doing something like that today.

We are going to be making a shift in our leadership, something that has been known as our eldership in the past. And we’re kind of redesignating their title as our family leaders. But we are bringing into the mix a new group of family leaders that we want to pray over today and speak into.

We met with our leadership team last Sunday to commission them really into what we see this next season to be. And it really to be about bringing people together to increase that outreach, the inviting to facilitate that in a greater way and to continue to live out the kingdom of God together. So we’re restructuring these family groups to fit where we believe God is putting on our hearts as our new mission.

Right? Changing how we are structuring our groups. If you’ve been a member of our church for very long, you’ll have known that we have these eldership teams or we’ve called them kind of our shepherding elder teams. And like I said, we’re restructuring that. We’re renaming it to our family leaders and our family groups.

And we’re changing things up because we believe that we need to position ourselves to be ready for what God is asking us to do.