Christ isn't calling us to courage, He calls us to fear properly!!!

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.

Welcome back, Saints. It is a new week and I am excited to get going again. I hope for those of you that are first-time listeners that you've taken the time to go back and listen to a few episodes, get a feel for what we're doing. For those of you that have been regulars following through Luke with us, we are going to continue today and continue pressing on towards the end of Luke. Extremely Excited to get to the end of the first book and the end of the first season on the podcast. If you haven't gone back and listened to the other episodes, please consider doing so. If you're new to the podcast altogether, you can start back at Luke one and work your way up to where we are, or you can start here with us. Either works. Thank you so much, all you guys that have left reviews. It's helping me in many ways understand the work that I've got to do to improve the podcast. So thank you for those of you who did leave reviews wherever you are listening to this, as well any of you that have shared it out. Clearly, it's reaching new ears all over the world, and that's only done by you. guys sharing this with other men that you think this might be of value to. So thank you so much for that. And now let's get down to it. Go grab your Bibles, go grab a coffee. Let's go. All right, here we are, Luke 12. It's going to begin. So as always, guys, I'm going to read from the ESV out loud. If you are in a place where you can't actually get your hands on a Bible, you're driving, you're at work, you're wherever, you're at the gym and you're running and you can't carry a Bible with you while you run, no problem. I read it out loud, but I do encourage you guys, if you are able, to grab a Bible of your own so you can keep notes. Uh, But we're going to start Luke 12 today. Let's go. In the meantime, when so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples, first, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not 5 sparrows sold for 2 pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are numbered. Therefore fear not, for you are of more value than many sparrows. And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God. But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. All right, we're starting the week off with fear and where our fear should be. And it's interesting because in our society, we're taught there's fear and there's courage. Those are the two that you have to go hand in hand, right? You're going to watch the movie, you watch the hero go from being a fearful youth into a courageous warrior, right? Well, in this instance, it's kind of interesting because God's response is it's not about fear or courage. It's about having your fear in the right place. Place. And he starts off with the Pharisees saying Pharisees are a bunch of hypocrites. First off, absolute hypocrites. They say one thing, they do another thing, they do another thing, they say one thing. It's in direct contravention to what God wants. They're hypocrites. Everything that they have tried to keep hidden, everything that they try to keep in the shadows, it's going to be known. And it's already known. And then he gets into the fear. He says, these are the people that you fear. Don't fear these people. What are they going to do, stone you to death? And then what? And I know for us that seems like a kind of a big deal, like, oh, you're going to die. But he's saying there's something so much bigger. We're talking about eternity. We're not talking about the short life that you have here. We're not talking about the moment, the small things. We're talking about the big things. And the big thing is eternity. So why, instead of fearing the man that holds the rock, would you not fear the man that holds the eternal hellfires of eternity? Right? Why? The judge is the one that needs to have the fear. And it's interesting that he takes this and goes, listen, like these Pharisees think that they have power and authority and all they have is dust. All they have control over is dust. They don't control you. They don't control your heart. They don't control your soul. And then comes the next part of, okay, great. So we're talking about dealing with the Pharisees. We know that they're teachers. We know that they're scholars. We know that they have a legal system set up. So If you don't fear them and you stand with God, you are going to get called in front of them. And we've seen that with John. We've seen it with Jesus. We know we're going to see it down the road in Acts with Paul. It just happens when you challenge them. When you have no fear of them, it breaks their system. And so he goes one step further and he puts all 3 of these together to say, so when it comes time for you to give defense, who is it that you need to cling to? Do you need to come up with some miraculous words? No. No, you don't. He even goes as far to say, if you deny me, that's fine, but don't deny the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the one that's going to do the work in you. It's going to be the one to change your heart. He is going to be the one who molds you and guides you. He's going to be the one that gives you the words to defend yourself. Don't use those words to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. It's interesting because again, this may be a bit of an allusion to Peter down the road here where he denies Christ 3 times and yet can be forgiven, right? But even still, he succumbs to the fear of the men around him as opposed to the fear of Christ. It was a moment of weakness. And only when we see him reconcile with Christ do we understand that Christ fully means what he says here. If you blaspheme Christ, there is forgiveness for you. There is hope for you. It can be forgiven. But those who acknowledge Christ and stand strong, stand firm, have that faith, have that fear in the right place, the fear of God, you have the wisdom to stand in front of the world and not feel pressured and not feel beaten down and not feel persecuted and judged because you know there's only one judge. And yeah, that may bring harm to you here in this world. But the next and eternity, they have you. You're covered. And that is a huge blessing. So challenge for today, guys. Where's your fear? Who do you fear? Do you fear the Lord? If not, do yourself a favor at some point today and just, just rip through the Bible for every instance of the word fear and see how often fear the Lord, fear his teachings, fear his— see how often that's in there. There is a genuine fear that we're supposed to have. Dwell in it. Find it. Cling to it. And realize that inasmuch as there can be fear, God loves you so much that there's no reason to cower from that fear. He is strong. He is firm. He's compassionate. It is a new week. I'm gonna pray for you guys, send you out into the week. Uh, as always, guys, if you send me prayer requests either on email, you go to the website, you, you comment on a post with a prayer request, I, I will get them there. I'm just, uh, there are a lot of them there. It seems like anonymity is the best way to go. Uh, for the most part, people are looking to have their prayers prayed for anonymously. So unless people ask specifically to be prayed for by name, I am just gonna continue praying for people anonymously. Um, That seems to just be a general request at this point. So, and the good Lord knows who we're praying for. So let's get down to it. Lord, thank you so much for the men that are listening. I just pray that you bless their lives. Pray that they would be able to have their fear in the right place, Lord, that they would not cower from the things of this world, the people of this world, the places of this world. I pray that they would be able to stand firm in you, Lord. As big and strong as you are, they're able to cling to that amazing God that is worthy of fear but is also worthy of awe. I just pray that we have the ability to stand in front of the trials of our own days Whether it's at work, whether it's in our social lives, whether it's the governments around us, whatever it may be that we're facing, Lord, whether it's our health, I pray that we would not fear the things of this world. Instead, we would cling to our hope in you. In your name we pray. Have an amazing day, guys. I will catch you on the next episode. Take it easy.

Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.