Talking Trash - Throwback Thursday

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear and champions faith. Fear is a spiritual force used by Satan to keep people down. The transcript emphasizes the importance of God's love and how it casts out fear. It discusses the Old Covenant and the consequences of stepping out of line with the Lord. It also highlights how Jesus paid the price for sin and broke the curse, enabling believers to walk in freedom and dominion. The transcript mentions a verse from 2 Kings where God tells the people not to fear the words of their enemies. It also shares a story of God's intervention and victory for the Israelites against the Assyrians. The transcript emphasizes that God loves everyone and desires all people to be saved. It concludes by reminding listeners that they are precious and valuable, and that God loves them just as they are. 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 2 Kings 19.6 Isaiah said to them, Tell your master this. Yahweh says, Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. I love this verse for two reasons. First, if you're in the Old Testament, don't talk trash to God. He isn't going to like it, and he is likely to do something about it. Now, I do want to say, it is not because he's vengeful, angry, petty, or cruel. It's because if you're stepping out of line with the Lord, you're stepping over the fence of protection and out to where you are subject to all the spiritual elements in the world. And guess what, kiddies? If it isn't of the Lord, then they are very bad spiritual elements. In the Old Covenant, that fence was high and firm to protect us, to show us that without the Lord, we're toast. I thank God that we are in the New Covenant, and the price for sin has been paid. The Lord promised in Genesis 2.17 that You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. In the Hebrew, there is more connotations with surely die than death. It does mean death, and we died spiritually, instant action. But it also has a sense of to be put to death, or must needs die and surely be put to death. Adam and Eve did not physically die, only spiritually. That did introduce death into creation, decay, sickness, death, all the elements of the curse. But we did not die for that sin. We were physically dying because of sin. The price of sin was still hanging over us. We were condemned beings walking, until Jesus. He came as a man, but not born of man. He did not have sin in His body. He was born of woman. His nature was pure from His Father, the Lord God Almighty. Jesus paid that price. He took the condemnation that we were under from the first moment of sin, and He walked it out. He died in it. When He was raised, He had broken the curse off of us and enabled us in Him to walk in the total freedom and dominion here on this earth that we were given as males and females in Genesis 1, 26-28, and Genesis 9, 1-7. It's the law of dominion. Now, if we talk trash, we're not violating law. We're just making the Lord sad. Now, it is true that you can blaspheme the Holy Spirit and it is a big no-no. See Luke 12, 10. But it's not the same as in the Old Covenant because they weren't dealing with the Holy Spirit day-to-day in themselves. In the Old Testament, blaspheme the name and you're heading to the grave. Leviticus 24, 16. The second reason I like this verse is that here, like in many places, God affirms that He is handling things. The people were not to worry. It didn't matter what other people said or why they did. God was taking care of it. They could sit back, relax, and focus on praising the Lord. In fact, God didn't use a single Israelite to solve this problem. An entire nation of people to choose from. Many of them able-bodied and ready to defend their nation. Nada. Not one. He told what was going to happen. And it happened. I mean, boy, did it happen. The Assyrian king didn't leave it there. He sent more words against the Israelites. He blustered. He fumed. But that night, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were killed by an angel. In the morning, the rest saw that and took off. The king went back home, and he was worshiping his idols when two of his sons came in and assassinated him. Don't talk trash against the Lord. From the Israelites' point of view, the miracle and victory was that God saved them. They had called out to God for help. God helped. This time, it was supernatural help. Other times, there were words of knowledge and prophecy. There were times people were the tools. Other times, the world around them, animals and the elements. Wherever the Lord had an altar and someone inviting him to move, he was able to move and do what he wanted, how he wanted, and when. The Lord God helps. Why? Because God loves us. We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 1 John 4, 16 Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and without defect before him in love. Ephesians 1, 4 So God is love, and he determined to love us before he made anything, before we sinned and fell, before we could behave and obey, before we could do anything to deserve it. God loved us. His love is not determined by our spiritual state. His love is not determined by our mental landscape. His love is not determined by our physical lives or actions. God loves us, period. Because God is love, period. Truth not to be argued, but it can be understood in and through his Spirit. That's Ephesians 3, 14-19. Now sometimes it isn't even believers that are helped. God blesses every human. He gives good things. Psalm 107, 9 Why is that? For I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm. That's what Jonah said about God in Jonah 4, verse 2b. God is love, and before anything was made, he chose to love all of us. All means all. Everyone. No exceptions. He loves us, and he wants to save us. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved, and to come to full knowledge of the truth. That's 1 Timothy 2, 3-4. That is why he sent his son, Jesus. That is why Jesus paid the price for all humanity. That was why there were sacrifices made available in the Old Testament to provide temporary coverage until Jesus came. God, Father, Son, and Spirit, is so desperate to get everyone into heaven that he never stops helping, blessing, and caring for them. He wants us to know he loves us. He loves us so much. This is the good news. His love for us has provided a way for us to be free, forever free and with him. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Deuteronomy 4, 36-40. God loves us so much. He chooses our children because of how much he loves us, or our parents, the grandparents. He remembers how much he loves someone and thinks, hey, I think I'll choose this descendant because I remember so-and-so, and boy, did they bless me. Amen and wow. You want one better? How about God chose the entire bloodline of Abraham because Abraham was his friend. That's amazing. God loves those who love him for thousands of generations. Thousands. That is love. 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 love 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.