Let Him Speak

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture, rejecting fear and championing faith. Jesus sacrificed everything for us and we have been given the authority to preach the gospel of Jesus. We should openly proclaim the good news and worship the Lord in love. Worship is a weapon that blocks the enemy and unlocks our identity in Jesus. We should not be afraid of what to say or what others may say or do to us. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of His word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to His perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Matthew 10.26-27 Therefore, don't be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak into the light, and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops. You know what's great about Jesus? Everything. Be honest. It's true. He's worthy of all the worship and praise that you can muster. And why not? Jesus has been to the ringer. No matter how graphic a depiction of the death of Jesus, it isn't graphic enough. No matter how brutal and violent, in the end, we want to recognize our actors and see them emote. But Jesus? He was scorned by all around him. All they wanted to see was him die. Funny thing about the condemned, when those around them hate them enough, it seems to give a carte blanche for others to treat them horrifically. If you doubt that, you think of all the prisoners, political, wartime, civilian, and terrorist, that have been held in all the kinds of prisons there are in the world, from concentration camps to civilized prisons. Think of the stories you know and trials you have seen of brutality in those prisons. Prisoner against prisoner and guard against inmate. Jesus suffered all that kind of thing. And then it got bad. Jesus suffered spiritually. He who was without sin became sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5.21. Jesus sacrificed everything for us. He had to in order to reconcile us to God in himself. Through him, we have been given a ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5.16-6.2. This is the same ministry that the disciples were given, though they were given it to get Israel to repent in order to be ready to receive salvation through Jesus' resurrection. We are on the other side of the resurrection, and along with the apostles have been given the authority to preach the gospel of Jesus so that people can be saved direct through Jesus. No other things required. It is the gospel of grace. He did it all so that sin is paid for. We don't have to choose hell. We get to choose love. We can choose God. We can choose being with him. We don't have to reject Jesus and choose not being with him. Now the world doesn't want to hear about it from us any more than Israel did from the disciples in Jesus' day. But Jesus told them not to fear, not to let themselves get discouraged and downcast. The disciple isn't greater than their teacher, but they aspire to be like their teacher. If the teacher is called names and abused, the disciple can expect to be called names and be abused too. John 10, 24-25. Jesus told them not to be afraid because he promised that there is nothing that won't be revealed, no conduct or treatment, in no matter how dark a place it is committed, that won't be brought into light. In fact, a little earlier he had been telling them that if a household or city won't receive their message of the kingdom of heaven being at hand, it wouldn't go well for those people. Most certainly, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Verse 15. Now when you take into consideration, just in the physical now, not even spiritually, but if you take into consideration that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with such violent fire that Roman soldiers walking around after Jesus' time reported seeing scorch marks on boulders in the Valley of Sodom, that is quite an indictment. It's Josephus that records those observations. But we are told that it is not ourselves who will speak this message, but the spirit of our almighty Father who will speak it in and through us. That was verse 20. What is this message? Simply put, the gospel. What I tell you in the darkness, speak into the light, and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops, says Jesus. The message that Jesus gives us in the word, what he tells us apart from humanity when the message isn't ready, when we aren't ready, when we are in our learning phase. But when we are sent out by Jesus, when we take those things that were spoken to us in darkness and whispered in our ear, when we're sent out into the light, proclaim it from the housetops. Do not hide it. The good news that sin is dealt with, that no one needs to suffer its penalty. Everyone can choose to be with God. This good news should be told out loud and proud. There is no secret gospel. There is nothing reserved for initiates. There is not teaching for those and another teaching for an inner circle. Jesus holds nothing back. Now, the fact is that the nuances of the message cannot be understood by the ungodly. Now, the natural man doesn't receive the things of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he can't know them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2.14 But we don't hide those things. We tell them everything openly and without reservation. Now, this doesn't mean we cram it down their throats. It means that the Word of God isn't a secret. It is an open treasure, a freely given gift that we are to freely give away in our turn. Matthew 10.5-8 God tells everyone everything about himself, and those that can hear, hear. Those that choose not to take it in, don't. And those that choose to take it in, do. We aren't to hold things back, but we aren't to waste time talking about the nuances of the kingdom to anyone that we come across. Matthew 7.6 We are to be led of the Lord in what we are to say, to whom and when. Matthew 10.20 But we can freely answer any question. We can talk openly of the things of God. This is a tremendous gift. No secret societies for us. No initiates. No secret levels that we have to work to achieve. No paying to get the secret steps to success or closeness to God. Free gospel. Free grace. Free word. Free relationship with him. What a blessing. What an amazing and open gospel we speak. But there are those that do not appreciate that free gospel of grace. They aren't in the business of freedom. They don't always think the happiest of happy thoughts toward us. Their actions are not always joy, joy, hugs, and smooches. We aren't to fear that. These aren't our words but his word. We aren't to hide our message and cower away. We are to proclaim the good news. Hide nothing. Reveal all of the Father's grace of his love. In love. Not in worry. Not in fear of reprisal. Not in, if you don't do this, he's going to bash your head in. No, in love. Because he loves us all and he wants us to know it. He wants us to know that nothing separates us from him anymore. His words, his way, his timing. He will let us know what to say and when to say it. Most importantly, how to say it. We are to speak in love, move in love, think in love, share in love, and worship in love. We are to praise and worship the Lord openly with our words and our love. We deny nothing of God. We celebrate everything of the Lord. We praise and worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. John 4, 24. We worship him when we feel it. We worship him when we do not feel it. In fact, when we do not feel it is when we are to bring our very best praise to his feet. Worthy are you, O Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive glory, the honor, and the power. For you created all things, and because of your desire they existed and were created. Revelation 4, 11 and Hallelujah. Are you being attacked? Worship the Lord hard. Are you doing great? Worship the Lord hard. Are you awake? Worship the Lord hard. You know, if you do it enough, you start doing it in your sleep too. Worship him. Give him praise. Not just because he is a good God. He is a very good God. Not just because he deserves it. He deserves it so much. Not just because he is worthy. He is worthy to receive the glory, the honor, and the power. Not just because he is merciful. His mercy endures forever. But because praise is a weapon that blocks the enemy. Defeats what ails us spiritually. Very much spiritually. And also it can do it physically. And it sends the enemy packing in confusion. Worship is the language of the kingdom. And we are to train ourselves to be proficient in its speaking. It is the key that unlocks so much about who we are. Who we are in Jesus. And how we are supposed to be. Ourselves on our own journey. And also in our interactions with this world that we are to bring his message to. If we abide in the Lord and stay close under his wing. Bringing ourselves into captivity before the cross. Receiving his free gifts. Renewing our minds in his word. And opening our ears to Holy Spirit. What would there be to worry about? The Lord created the world. Language. Us. And everything around us. If there is even a chance of speaking with his eloquence. We should jump at it. Have you ever gone through the gospels? Looking at all the things Jesus said. And how he said it. The simplicity of his words. The deep things hidden in basic concepts. I mean, that is what we need. His eloquence. Don't you think? Don't be afraid of what to say. He has words for us. Don't be afraid of what others may say or do to us. There will be an accounting before God for that. What does Psalm 91 say? He will honor us. What is done to us will be answered for in the highest court there is. The throne of Almighty God. So don't fear. Step out in faith. And walk in what the Lord has for you. Spread that free message of good news. Start today. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Matthew 10, 5 to 20. Jesus has done something so great it has to be heard to be believed. Jesus has done something so important that he wants to share the message with everyone he can. Everyone who breathes on this good earth. Every single creature that is capable of reason and belief needs to know this message. He commands us to spread it. And he protects us while we do. Spiritually, there is nothing anyone can do to us. Nothing. Physically, yeah. But they're going to answer for it. Jesus wants people to know how much God loves us. How much he loves us. How much God has done for us because he loves us. And wants to move everything out of the way. All the roadblocks so we can go to him. We can choose to go to him. We don't have to go another way. We don't have to choose hell. We don't have to choose away from him. And you know what? He wants us to know how little we need to do to accept it all. All we need to do is believe and confess. No works will do it. Niceness won't do it. Generosity won't do it. Blessing others won't do it. Tithing won't do it. Attendance won't do it. Holy living won't do it. Prayer won't do it. Generosity won't do it. Belief in his work, his grace, his gift, his reconciliation of us with the father and confessing his lordship is what does it. And baptism in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit as proof and physical seal of what we believe and are confessing. And guess what? He gives us the faith to do that too because he loves us so much. Spread the word. Spread love. Real love. Not world love. God love. Jesus love. Spirit love. Spread Jesus. As we close, remember that you have birth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love and no end to the things about you that he loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you just because you're you. 1 John 4 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only-born Son into the world, that we might live through him. And this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin. And it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because he first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.