01152022_LbT_Fear

In this podcast, the speaker discusses the distinction between godly fear and ungodly fear. They believe that Christians were created to thrive, not just survive. Fear can consume us and make us feel helpless, but it is not always bad. The speaker acknowledges that fear is prevalent in society, especially during the pandemic. They emphasize the importance of overcoming worry, as it can prevent us from overcoming bad fear. Prayer and reading the Bible are suggested as ways to overcome fear, but the process takes time and perseverance. The speaker encourages listeners to not lose heart and to trust in God's grace and love. They remind us that God's power is perfected through our weaknesses. Ultimately, fear can be overcome with reliance on Christ. Is fear always a liar? Some of you may have heard this song it's a song that's been played on Christian contemporary radio for a while in case you're unaware of it let me tell you the lyrics of the chorus fear he is a liar he will take your breath stop you in your steps fear will rob your rest and steal your happiness so cast your fear into the fire because fear he is a liar but is that necessarily true for all cases? What if sometimes fear is good and fear is godly? Today I want to talk about the key distinction in fear fear that is godly and fear that is ungodly. In this podcast I am a firm believer that all Christians were created to do more than just survive but to thrive in Christ. We endure many trials and tribulations and the road is not easy and suffering is real and suffering is not something we can avoid. However we are still called to glorify God in what we say and do and think so hopefully by the end of this episode or by the end of this podcast series all of us as believers can thrive even more in the life that Christ gives to us and the life that he brings to us. So fear fear is a very common thing I would say it's almost universal for every single human being to experience fear can occur in a lot of different ways like for example in my life fear it's easy when I have a work project or back when I was in school, a school project or a task or assignment that I didn't really know how to do that there's a deadline coming up and the days are ticking down and the progress I'm making is minimal to none and maybe I procrastinate on some work and maybe I make some progress and see that it's wrong and regardless of what's going on the fear builds and this type of fear, the fear of the unknown can definitely engulf us as it engulfed me in the past. So not all fear is good but I also believe not all fear is bad either. This type of fear that I'm referring to isn't good because it consumes us, it consumed me making me feel helpless and engulfed, struggling to breathe struggling to survive. In the end though when the assignments are completed and the tasks are done what use did that fear accomplish or I like to call that more of worrying more than fear. I'll get into that distinction a little bit later but when you view it from a point of view on what good fear does, in this case not much at all. The end outcome of that fear may have caused me to do more work but at the cost of stress the cost of health, the cost is too much for the supposed benefits. So fear doesn't have to involve just work, it can involve fears of health, it can involve fears with siblings or family members, friends, enemies. Fear is very prevalent in this day and age even more prevalent now with the pandemic as I'm recording this in January 2022. Whenever you listen to this the pandemic may be over, we may be in a more difficult crisis than now, maybe not but as of now that is the prevalent issue that is causing a ripple effect of other issues in society is the pandemic which has been around for about two years. Time flies what are we doing with it? So fear is a very interesting thing because fear is palpable, you can sense it almost. You want to avoid it I want to avoid it, I don't want to struggle with it every single day or week. I want to break past those chains hasn't Christ promised to set us free from the chains of sin to break us free from these things we are no longer a slave to sin but we are free as a slave to Christ. That's his promises he says it so if he is who he says he is then the promise must be true and if he is not who he says he is then the promise obviously is false. But as Christians we believe his promises are true otherwise why would we believe in the first place? So why does fear engulf us so much? Why? And the answer may be different for everybody due to their personal experiences and that's completely fine but I do think there are some similarities some universal principles. Fear is rooted in uncertainty from God's perspective he sees past, present and future so he transcends through time. He understands what's going on when we cannot see it. To us it's like a mirror or it's like a cloud and a mirror in this case is not a mirror in 2022 where you can clearly see your reflection. I'm talking about mirrors in biblical times. These mirrors were very poor compared to modern standards you could barely see yourself. It would be jaded, it would be very fuzzy very unclear. So that's the type of mirror I'm referring to in this case that's what the future is like for us. We can't see it we have faith that God's promises are true we have hope and assurance that he will not fail us but we still don't see it because it takes faith and that can cause fear if interpreted incorrectly. Fear is dangerous but fear can be overcome. Now I want to talk about the distinction between fear and worry because if we cannot overcome worry we will not be able to overcome bad fear. Worry is when you dwell upon the thing that is causing you fear it can become excessive. You think about the problem, the drama, the issue non-stop as it consumes you and it turns your attention away from the Father and away from God and away from his word and it turns it inward. It distorts our relationship with God because it seems like he isn't there. As we move further away from God it makes us think he's moving further away from us so fear with the lies it spouts, this ungodly fear can threaten to derail us from what God wants what is best for us. So how do we overcome this fear? How do we overcome ungodly fear? I could give you a cookie cutter formula to discuss about regular things you may hear in church or you might hear from a pastor or minister or whoever is the head of a church. Oh you should pray more you should read your Bible more. Things like that none of this is bad or incorrect but some of you may be saying I've done that my entire life, I've prayed I've read the word, it doesn't help. I've taken other measures even to have this taken care of but it doesn't help but brothers and sisters in Christ let us not despair let us be persistent. We see examples in the Bible, the Old Testament characters many of whom had doubts and struggles and worries and fears their imperfections were still used by God so that their works would be glorified and that their names would be listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews don't set unrealistic standards for yourself and don't expect things to instantaneously change. I know we read sometimes where things change immediately in the scriptures where people get healed, miracles occur and when we were saved that wasn't instantaneous change where we passed from death to life, from eternal death to eternal life and where we became the children of God, the adopted sons and daughters of God instead of the sons and daughters of the devil. But not all change is instantaneous the process of sanctification is called a process because it takes time the Apostle Paul writes that when we were first saved we started drinking spiritual milk but not eating spiritual meat because we had to grow into that in other words we had to go from the simplest concepts and the most straightforward concepts of Christianity into the more complex processes, the more interesting points such as theology, such as doctrine all these things we grew into as we grew spiritually and this process means that while we belong to Christ we are being perfected by Christ as well but we're not perfect yet. We will be made perfect but that is not the case as of now we're still being perfected. The process of sanctification is not easy. It contrasts from salvation because sanctification takes time. Because it takes time we will have ups and downs as we run the race which God has set before us so don't lose heart if we pray and we feel like no one's there read the scriptures and we feel like nothing changes. Don't lose heart. Persist. Persevere continue to realize that even if we fail every single day God has grace for us. He shows us His mercy He shows us His love. He does not condemn us for our failures if we continue to worry day by day. He loves us. He wants what is best for us just be encouraged by that. Be encouraged even if you don't see progress even if you feel like worry consumes you even if you know it's bad even if you know it drains life out of you yet you can't stop doing it don't despair. Christ is on your side have hope. Have the hope that only Christ can bring and eventually in due time we will continue to see how God has been faithful to us in the months and years of the past if we stay faithful to God He remains faithful to us and the lies of the enemy and the demons under the devil although repeated although twisted although rephrased we eventually continue to see them more and more as what they are. Lies. From the father of lies the devil. And as you continue to grow closer to Christ through the days weeks, months, and years we continue to realize these lies are pointless to listen to pointless to believe in. And even if we still experience worry and fear and experience these things they don't become as severe as before or if we have a relapse and we have a moment where we do experience a terrible sense of fear and worry we eventually come to the end of it and realize again those are just lies we give thanks to God that He does not abandon us in our struggles and He does not abandon us in our weaknesses but in fact He delights in us. He loves us despite our weaknesses. His power is actually made perfect through our weaknesses. Isn't that awesome? His power is perfected through our weaknesses. So yes there are many ways where fear is bad and I've talked about some of them as well. And it may seem like it's an impossible abyss to climb out of but remember as well you don't have to climb out of this on your own in fact if you tried to climb out of this on your own you would fail This teaches us to rely more on Christ and it also teaches us to not view ourselves more highly than we ought to be because even if you don't struggle with worry or fear as much as I've described in myself or others, you have some weakness in some way, shape, or form. Let's face it. Let's be honest with ourselves here. Let's not deceive ourselves in thinking that we don't have any weaknesses or flaws or there's nothing we struggle with. Let's not be dishonest and arrogant and lie to ourselves and thus deceive ourselves of what is actually true which connects nicely to my next point about the good type of fear. We hear about the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. This fear is more like an awe. It's more like a sense of submission to God or to a higher power. But fear is predicated upon a true reason. It's actually good. If you are cold and you're outdoors you feel the fear that you might freeze to death if you don't get inside or to a warm place. So that fear compels you to action so that you do something. As I talked earlier about the examples of fearing about projects, that fear can be good if it compels you to resolve the issue or even better you recognize the fear and it points you back towards Christ. As we acknowledge from Christ that He is our identity and He is our worth and we don't listen to the bad parts of fears tell us that our worth is found somewhere else and other good things but in light of Christ these good things pale in comparison. And in this example about the project, we recognize the relative importance of it. It's important, it's necessary to complete but we also have that eternal perspective of failing or passing this project does not define our eternal identity in Christ. God is good. He loves us very much and we should be thankful for His goodness to us. We should be thankful that sometimes He makes us feel uncomfortable when we need to be uncomfortable. I can talk more about comfort in another episode but back to fear. So I said fear can be good when fear is predicated upon truth. In this case as Christians we know that the truth resides in God because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Christ. So that is what we believe as Christians. So to the Christian there is a good type of fear when the fear comes from God. You might be saying, well wait a second, isn't isn't our purpose in our walk in life not to be consumed by fear? Well sure, as I said bad examples earlier you don't want to be consumed by fear there. Aren't we not, you might ask, created to not live in a spirit of fear? Well yes as well. We don't want fear to be overwhelming but in cases where fear is warranted we need to pay attention when God tells us we should and we need to act accordingly. There's an interesting Bible verse in Philippians chapter 2. It states that therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. That's Philippians chapter 2 verses 12-13 and what I find so interesting about this is that the earlier passage we talked about, the one about not being anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition laying our requests being known to God and having the peace of God surpass all understanding guarding our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus that passage, it's the same letter. Think about it, it's the same letter from the same author the passage I talked about most recently about not being anxious that's in Philippians 4 verses 6-7 so what gives? Is that a contradiction? How can we have fear and trembling but also not be anxious about anything? How does that add up? How does that work together? Well again we look at word choice, we look at what Paul chose to phrase these verses and he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write them fear in chapter 2 verses anxiety or worry in chapter 4 again the emphasis on not living in that mindset where you're obsessed by fear, where I'm obsessed by anxiety or worries but acting accordingly when fear is necessary and the danger is present so we look back at Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 and it talks about working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, it's not saying that you might need to fear all the time about it I don't think that's what it's saying he works in us for his good pleasure so it's not saying worry about this excessively but we do need to be concerned that we don't deceive ourselves in our walk with Christ if someone is about to go into the ocean on the beach side and there's a tsunami coming or there's a riptide or there's some sort of threat and the lifeguard knows it and doesn't tell you about it, what type of love is that? he didn't want to say it because he didn't want to cause you to fear but how terrible there's a tsunami coming or there's a riptide that's going to sweep you out to the ocean you may not know you have to swim parallel in order to get back to shore someone may not know that so in this case the fear is absolutely warranted and it's necessary how much more than on eternal matters is fear warranted when it's based on truth? Brothers and sisters in Christ as we live our lives and as we go through the highs and the lows, the ups and downs what we cannot become is complacent nor in a state where we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are in Christ if we are not deceiving ourselves to think that we follow the Christian pattern and go through the motions of church going, serving, doing good things, not being bad not doing the terrible things some other people do, I'm not as bad as so-and-so does worse things than me, I may not be as good as he is but I'm better than he is, all sorts of excuses and justifications that we make or some of us make, we cannot deceive ourselves into thinking that just because we walk into the building we are in Christ we must not deceive ourselves and say that we know God when we merely know about God we merely know facts about God we merely know points about God we merely know basic surface level items, knowing about God is nothing compared to knowing God, compared to knowing God personally, and we can only talk to God the Father if we have been saved by Jesus Christ, because if we are saved by Jesus Christ then we have the Holy Spirit in us and He who lives within us, the Holy Spirit thus enables us to communicate with God the Father so if you think you've been saved but you actually haven't been, you should be fearful, you should, I'm going to say that again because I don't want you to miss this, I don't want myself to miss this if you think you are saved and you belong to Christ but you actually don't, how horrifying is that how fearful is that, that's worse than any horror film that's worse than any terror that may come upon us in our lives no matter how bad and awful those things may be that's all in this life, that's all going to pass, we say this too shall pass those trials and tribulations will pass but if we are not a part of Christ we should fear, we should worry we should because this is so important, this is eternity at stake, this is why Paul says work out your own salvation, test to see that you are still in the faith test it constantly, test it frequently, don't become passive and just think that I prayed a prayer when I was young so I'm good even though you know I don't really read my Bible except maybe on Christmas and I don't go to church except Easter and you know I mark that I'm a Christian on the census and I say I'm a Christian to my friends but my parents believe that so that's the convenient thing to say, I say to my friends, oh yeah I believe in a higher power, a deity there's a God, there's an intelligent designer, there's a creator he's out there somewhere, we may not be able to know him well but yeah I guess he's Christian so I'm Christian too brothers and sisters we cannot deceive ourselves with such terrible thinking, with such poor doctrine and we also cannot deceive ourselves into saying oh yes I love God I love him, he is my all in all we sing the songs and then our brother or sister in Christ comes to us with a need and we ignore them reject them or our enemies we hate them and we don't forgive them even if we know they're in the wrong and even though they deserve justice for what they've done and absolutely they might they absolutely should if they've committed crimes or committed terrible things but as the Lord has forgiven us so we must also forgive so these are just some examples that I've listed these are not meant to be comprehensive, not at all you know your walk with God, you know it I may not know it, others may not know it you can be the best actor in the world or actress in the world you can fool everybody, you can fool everybody but you can't fool God, he sees what others can't see, he looks at the heart while others look at the external appearance so really do challenge yourself get out of the comfort zone and really just go over your life, are you bearing good fruit in your life? It's not I need to be saved so let me go do these good works so I can feel saved that's not what that means, that's just a natural outcome of being a Christian you're born again so obviously you have a new identity and if you're born again you live differently than if you weren't born again, that's a natural and expected consequence so don't turn this into works based salvation heresy, don't think of it like that and then just go back to your comfort zone or our comfort zone that's so easy, we talk about legalism so much in the church, don't be legalistic but don't have license either, the license to do whatever we say or want to do, the passions of the flesh, let's just do them without a second thought because otherwise it's legalism and you're judging me, but judge with right judgment says Jesus, not never judge but judge with right judgment, the meter stick you use to judge others that will be used against you, but if someone is doing evil and someone is doing something that you know you need to call them out upon in prayer and discernment, with charity and with all the wisdom you get from God and the peace he gives you regardless of what happens next, you may have to confront, you may have to judge with right judgment, these verses are uncomfortable and they should be, these verses may make us feel a bit scared, a little bit of fear, that's good that's not bad, that's good that means we care, that means it's not just something you listen to on Sunday as a habit because there's food, because there's social activities at the end of church, it's not why we do this for those are good things, but those pale in comparison to our relationship with God, because of Jesus Christ death on the cross, he shed his holy and precious blood to wash away our sins and his resurrection, which proved that he had conquered physical death and can reign forevermore he sits now at the right hand of the throne of God Jesus does, he gives us the comforter the Holy Spirit, he is with us how horrible would it be, how terrible would it be to think we have this great hope when we don't actually have it, think about it, pray about it talk to others about it, don't keep it within yourself that's why church is important as well, because it's a good community, it brings good fellowship but we can talk about church more another time this is between you and God at the moment really question, do not assume without really pondering it today, don't delay, don't procrastinate are you really saved? Do you really belong to God? Are you going to be part of the sheep or part of the goats? if you are truly in Christ, praise God praise the Lord again, I said earlier, those are some examples those who claim to be Christian but actually aren't brothers and sisters, we must be careful and we must acknowledge our weaknesses and we know we don't have to be perfect we praise God when we make mistakes his grace is sufficient for us, so long as we are actually in Christ and are not deceiving ourselves, I repeat this multiple times, because it's easy to forget if you hear it just once but it is important and vital that you understand the importance of godly fear it's humbling, it humbles us good, it makes us sometimes feel lowly, we might mourn that we have sinned more than we realize, and we realize each sin that we commit, no matter how insignificant or how grave is a sin that would separate us from God eternally we start to become less nonchalant about things while we still enjoy life and the goodness it has to bring because that is something good from God above, we also become more careful and more disciplined in what we say the actions we take, will we be part of the sheep or part of the goats? many say to Christ, when it's too late Lord, Lord, did we not do these things? which believers did, true believers did, and those who are not true believers did as well again, these are not exact phrases from the verse, but I'm just going to paraphrase that into the daily life that a lot of people go through in 2022 like, did we not go to church every Sunday? did we not listen to the pastor preach from the word of God? did we not say our prayers before bedtime? did we not do good works and serve? did we not do all these things? but did we really and truly trust Christ for our salvation alone? did we really believe it, not just say it? did we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus? and do we believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead? do we believe it? or do we just acknowledge it? eh, it's probably true it's probably true no more passivity in this no more it's too important this isn't to say in the other extreme oh, if I sinned once, I lost my salvation, I can't get it back anymore because you know how the enemy works, the enemy is clever the enemy shows up as a thief in the night the enemy shows up as an angel of light the enemy will throw all sorts of tactics and tricks to deceive you all sorts of tricks don't be deceived by the devil place your trust in God you're not walking life on a tightrope in a sense that oh, if I sinned once, I lost my salvation no, don't go to the opposite end either because then that's when you can dive into legalism where you have to follow everything so perfectly we're given grace from God we are slaves to Christ and he gives us freedom as a result of being slaves to Christ it's crazy it's paradox, but it's beautiful he gives us joy he gives us love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all these awesome things that come from God above and so the natural response is to glorify him and do good works that's the natural outcome and when we stumble, he forgives when we stumble, he still loves us so don't feel the condemnation from the previous minutes quite the opposite feel the hope it's not too late for you it's not too late for me there will be a time when it is too late and the time is approaching sooner now than when you first listened to this podcast sooner now than when you first believed or when you thought you first believed sooner than later sooner than later it will be too late don't delay this there are lots of things in life we can delay lots of things in life we can wonder about but don't delay make sure make sure you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling God works in us to will and to work for his good pleasure and when we know we are in Christ we have the confidence of the Holy Spirit working through us he gives us peace a peace that transcends all understanding we look back at our lives we see our ups and downs but we notice in our lives we've changed not because we needed to try to change in order to earn God's favor but it's just natural it just happens it just happens that's because of the Holy Spirit working that's how he transforms us before we might have viewed sin as something nonchalant but now we recognize the severity of it before we might have just given up on certain people or given up on people because they're enemies but now we pray for them but now we act differently we look back and we see the change not because we again wanted to do it to earn it earn grace but because it's a natural result but what if we look back and say I don't see that I don't see any change I don't see that I've been different oh Lord have mercy what if that's me? don't feel condemned remember remember who your God is remember you can always come to him at any time and repent anytime whether you're saved or not saved you can repent any moment while there is still life before he returns before Christ returns again it's not too late and you can change don't listen to the lie from the enemy that it's too late when it's not too late don't listen don't listen at all if you still think you're struggling through these issues you still don't see change I encourage you to go to your local church and just reach out to either a pastor or reach out to some of your brothers and sisters you fellowship with in Christ and talk to someone you trust who's a Christian talk to them make sure what they say aligns with scripture obviously but talk to them get accountability get wisdom and counsel from those who know more who have gone through what you've been through maybe they're older maybe they're the same age but they've gone through different experiences listen to them listen they can give much wiser much better advice than I can on this at the end of the day if it comes from God it should be listened to if it comes from man and not from God I hope you forget it I pray you forget it you don't need to listen to things that are not from God those who distort the scriptures and teach false teachings about the word those who promise that this life is full of prosperity and no suffering whatsoever if you're a Christian and you only will get good things guaranteed don't listen to that don't listen to it fear as we've talked about both good and bad depending on the circumstance depending on the subject matter depending on the importance depending on the relevance don't be consumed by fear but if you need to feel it and you need to be uncomfortable because of fear then it's not always from the enemy not always if you feel convicted from God because you look back at your life and you see wow I really don't have any fruit I never even cared about it or I kind of cared about it but not really you know I have this label of being Christian I like it my friends all have it stuff like that you feel convicted it's not too late you can change right now you can repent right now again you can confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you can believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead you can do that right now be cleansed of your sins be cleansed if people who are believers in our state they drifted away because it can be easy to go through highs and lows in life and not have it constant not having it continually growing closer to God you can also repent and change not too late today is the day though don't delay delaying is a recipe for disaster can you guarantee to me what will happen tomorrow? what exactly will happen tomorrow? you have a routine we have the things we do we eat meals maybe we're working maybe we take care of the family spouse children maybe we're still in college still in high school still in school maybe you're in certain fields like the medical field or other fields where there are troubling times and stressful days ahead there's a lot of uncertainty in life normally and in this time in January 2022 you may feel like there's even more than normal your life is just a vapor in the context of eternity it's here today and gone tomorrow in the eternal perspective why delay something so important another day? if you don't believe in Christianity and you're thinking about it you're questioning whether it's true of course I want you to make a decision as soon as possible but I also understand that it's a tough decision Christ didn't say it'd be easy you gotta count the cost of course it's worth it it's worth the cost but you have to count it you have to be aware of it it's not all fine and dandy it will be in eternity when we are with Christ we experience the joy he wipes away the tears from our eyes but as of now it's still a race we all run but for those who are Christians or who know it's true because the Holy Spirit convicted you but you still don't want to commit you still don't want to repent something is still holding you back whether it's trauma whether it's grief whether it's bad experiences with other Christians with church leaders church officials bad to terrible to horrible experiences to unspeakable experiences all sorts of things hold you back those flawed people who are Christians or who were supposed Christians even though they screwed up even though they messed up even though they were imperfect and did terrible horrible things that's not who God is that's never who God is God gives us grace he gives us our relative free will to do things on this earth of course God is sovereign as well maybe we'll talk about that interesting dynamic another day but from your perspective you have the free will to make choices so that's when people have choices to make they make both good and bad decisions but don't be deterred from God because of Christians who made bad decisions look upon Jesus look upon Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith he who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God what good news that is and you know it to be true because the Holy Spirit has convicted you don't wait I plead with you don't wait if you wait another day there's no guarantees no guarantees at all you might forget about this in a day in an hour in 10 minutes I don't care if you forget about this podcast I don't care if you forget about what I have to say don't forget what God has to say to you his words are eternal heaven and earth pass away but the words of Christ never pass away eternity is so large and this life so finite that we need eternal security it can only be found through Jesus only be found through him so again I plead with you if you know this is true you know God's speaking to you and something's holding you back let go repent let go of what's holding you back even if the enemy the demons of the devil throw lie after lie after lie at you and they may condemn you they may tell you it's too late you've committed some sin that's too grave to be forgiven those lies so evil so evil are they don't believe them come to Christ come to Christ you can still be saved you can still be reborn if you're a Christian who's grown stale you can still be rekindled you can no longer become lukewarm you can end that phase of your life for good you will have ups and downs you will have them but again in the end he is the Lord and he is the way the truth and the life he will give you life and he will give you life to the full so i guess as we wrap up this podcast if you're still listening i appreciate you listening all the way through or if you skip to the end i don't care thank you as well for listening again just a brief recap fear a lot of instances it's bad it consumes us it becomes worry it becomes something that just consumes us becomes like an idol points us back to ourselves points us away from God a lot of times it's like that and in that case we shouldn't have worry we shouldn't have these fears we should confess them to God and pray to him so he can take our burdens he can carry them we have to carry things on our own but he can carry those fears we have to walk this life on our own but we are not alone because we have God on our side he lives within us so in essence we're not really on our own even if it feels like it but even though we have all the teachings from God we still have to make the choice to obey them so that's what i meant by walking on our own it's not actually by ourselves but it is important that we have to make the decisions even through the conviction of God we still have to do it so that's the type of bad fear and that's the more common one but i also talked about the good type of fear fear predicated on truth again i use the beach analogy if there's a tsunami coming and you don't know about it for some reason but the lifeguard does and the lifeguard doesn't tell you and you go into the beach and the ocean you get swept away that's not love and the fear was warranted so i escalated that to the eternal perspective of those who think they are saved but delude themselves and are in fact not saved because they know about God they go through the motions their parents or family or friends are actually christians and they just assumed they would be christian because of that as well they didn't actually have a relationship with God because of Jesus Christ enabled through the Holy Spirit they didn't have that so we talked about that as well again i appreciate you listening to the podcast today fear fear fear fear is something which can be both good and bad but at the end of the day if fear points you to God and makes you grow closer to God then it's a good thing so we praise God for the good days we give thanks even through the bad days and we go beyond just surviving and going through the motions we begin to thrive we continue to thrive in Christ even through grief hardships trials uncertainties calamities even when it sometimes doesn't even make any sense we rejoice in Christ that's how we know we're thriving in Christ when we have the joy that can only be explained through God and the peace that transcends all human understanding we know we are thriving we know we are living as God intended us to live so praise God for his goodness praise God for his awesomeness thank you again for listening to the podcast today it was good i hope you enjoyed listening to it i hope you got something out from it not from something i said but because God spoke to you in some way shape or form i really pray that that's the case and as long as God told you something whether it's something i said or whether it's because something someone else said that matches a theme in this podcast that's what really matters so again thank you so much for listening i appreciate your time hope you have a rest of a good day and i will see you all again next time