1 Peter 3:9-17

Thinking about preaching this Sunday, I was especially excited to be with the 8:00 AM crowd.

So I was thinking, you guys are the kind of people that on Sunday morning wake up early. By

the time you get here, you're like, I am so ready to be in God 's word. The amount of people I've

had already this morning saying, I'm so excited to hear you preach. I'm like, I think you are now

11:15. I don't know, we'll see about that. But you guys are here to hear the word of God and I'm

so excited to take you there this morning.

We're going to be in First Peter chapter 3. So if you have your Bibles, turn there to First

Peter chapter 3. And we will be in verses 9 through 17. Now, as we were singing this morning, I

was thinking, honestly, I don't even really know what else I have to say to get up to preach,

because Ryan chose songs that perfectly articulated what I'm going to try to say, and

particularly this last song. Now, why this fear In our passage today, Peter addresses the topic of

fear a bit. And I was, as I was thinking about this this morning, I just thought how interesting it

was that God would take the most fearful man I know, me, to deliver a message to you about

fear and exchanging our fear for the honoring of Christ. Now maybe you're sitting there and you

say, no, I don't think you're the most fearful man you know, because I'm the most fearful man or

woman that I know.

Fear is an interesting topic because we have all experienced fear. How many of you remember

some of your childhood fears? Do you remember something you were afraid of in childhood; As

I was thinking about fear and my childhood fears, I remembered many times when I would

take our big garbage can down the road once a week to get it ready for the garbage man to

come pick up. I would take it down a long gravel driveway, often because I had forgotten to do it

earlier. Late at night and it was dark. I wheeled that thing down and I was afraid of what could

be around me all the way down the driveway. I would set it down and then I'd Sprint back to the

house as fast as I could. That was one of my childhood fears.

I asked my wife about her childhood fears and we laughed at a crazy fear that we both had in

common. This fear is a bit crazy but I guarantee some of you have had this fear. It was a fear

that at some point a snake would come up the plumbing of the toilet and bite us as we were

going to the bathroom. How many of you have had that fear and are willing to confess?

OK. So our childhood fears were a bit crazy but.

We've all experienced the emotion of fear. It's a common emotion. The first emotion that the

Bible tells us that Adam and Eve experienced after the fall was fear. From that time to now, we

all feel the effects of fear. So I know that all of us have experienced fear. But this morning I'm

wondering how many of us have experienced a fear that's misplaced or later on, you found out

you didn't actually need to be afraid of what you were afraid of. When I was sprinting back from

putting the garbage can at the end of the driveway, I was always afraid that Cougars were

chasing me. Now, as far as I know, it could have happened. There weren’t any Cougars chasing

me on the way back to the house. I'm hopeful, very, hopeful that the snake is never going to

make its way up the toilet plumbing.

Those were misplaced fears. But often in life we find just because of the way that fear works,

that we're fearing something that we really didn't need to fear. We fear things like the last-

minute meeting with our boss where we will get fired even though it turns out she was just going

to give us a promotion. We fear things. This is my wife 's fear. We fear things like our house

burning down because we forgot to blow out the candle and then we come home to a blown-out

candle in a house that's still standing We have misplaced fears And we just fear a lot of crazy

things at times In our passage today,

Peter recognizes the potential for our fear to be misplaced, and he encourages us that instead

of fearing others, we should honor Christ the Lord.

Let's read our passage together and see what Peter has to say about this verse.

First Peter 3:9-12. “Do not repay evil for evil, or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary bless, for

to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and see

good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn

away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on

the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those

who do evil. “

3:13 “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14. But even if you

should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have No Fear of them nor be

troubled,15. but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Always be prepared to make a

defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that's in you; yet do it with

gentleness and respect,16. having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those

who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17. For it is better to suffer for

doing good, if that should be God 's will, then for doing evil..”

Did you notice what Peter said at the end of verse 14 in the beginning of 15? He said, have No

Fear of them nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. Now, there's a lot

going on in our passage. There's a lot more verses than just one like last week. So I'm not going

to be able to get into all that. I wish we could in this passage. But if we leave here today,

knowing this central command, this central exhortation. Do not fear Honor Christ I think we'll be

able to move forward, encourage as we worship God in our workplaces, as a church

community, and everywhere we go throughout the Treasure Valley

.

Point 1:

In the first half of our time this morning, I'm going to really try to draw out what Peter is saying

here. When he's saying do not fear. Who are we not to fear? We'll cover that in this first half.

Then in the second- half, we're going to make a shift towards looking at what it means to honor

Christ the Lord as holy. In all of this, I hope that we'll see that the gospel frees us to exchange

our fear for Worshipful honoring of Christ the Lord - just like it did for these 1st century believers.

Who is the “them” that Peter is talking about in verse 14? He encourages us not to fear them.

Who are these “others” that Peter is specifically concerned that we don't fear.

Peter really answers this question in a variety of ways. Throughout the book of first Peter, and

even in our more immediate context, he's talked about don't fear government, don't fear

masters, don't fear your spouse. But in these verses specifically, he gives us a couple different

categories of people that were not to fear. Verse nine, he gives us a very specific answer to this

question, and we find in verse nine that these people were not to fear are the evil doers And the

revilers These are any people in any relationship that are doing evil against us or saying

slanderous things about us In verse nine, Peter connects this do not fear them back to the

revilers and the evil doers.

This whole section that we find here, 1 Peter, verses 9 through 17, Peter gives a theological

reorientation of our fear. He says exchange your fear for Worshipful honoring of Christ. But in

these verses, verses 9 through 12, he gets even more specific with a practical application of

what it looks like to live without fear. In a day when people revile us and do evil against us. He

wants to see what it looks like to live as those who have been transformed by the gospel

message.

Now, the practical application that Peter gives here and that I'm going to try to draw out here the

next couple of minutes is one of the most challenging ethical teachings that Peter gives and

really all of Scripture gives. What does he say in verse nine? He says this. Do not repay evil for

evil or reviling for reviling. OK, simple enough. Not going to do evil back to those who do me

evil. I'm not going to revile them back. But he takes it a step further He says.

On the contrary Bless Peter in writing is recognizing the fearful situation that these believers are

in. They're part of a new religious movement that was an extreme minority. They were

misunderstood and reviled. People did evil against them. So Peter takes this fearful reality that

the initial readers were understanding, and he teaches them that not only are the believers to

not revile in return and do evil in return. But they're actually to bless those who treat them

poorly.

Why does Peter take this teaching to this level? Why are Christians supposed to bless them,

who treat them poorly?

Well, this way of living is both the teaching and the example of Jesus Christ. Look with me at

1 Peter 2:23 and 24. This is about Jesus. “When he was reviled, He did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges

justly. He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to

righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

Jesus didn't lash out in response to evil. Instead, He provided the blessing of sharing his death.

and resurrected life. He took the sins of humanity and bore them on the cross. That's a perfect

example of what Jesus himself teaches in Luke 6 when he said that we should, “love our

enemies. And do good to those who hate us. We should bless those who curse us and pray for

those who abuse us.”

Jesus even said, ”To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from the

one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.

Application:

So why should we repay blessing for mistreatment and reviling. Well, it's the teaching and

example of Christ our Savior, the Savior who bore our sins so that we might live to

righteousness. This is His blessing and took on wounding so that we may be healed.

What stops us from responding in this way? What's the connection to not fear them here? Why

don't we respond like Christ would have us respond to those who revile us?

I think the simple answer is that very often We are living in fear of those who are around us.

We're afraid of rejection, we're afraid of reviling. We're afraid of mistreatment. And the easiest

thing to do when we're afraid of those things is to be

I can't tell you how many times I've sat in a barber 's chair wanting to tell them more about

Jesus Christ, but instead of doing that, I was silent because I feared the rejection that might

come.

So often we live our life in this way where we have reviling and evil treatment either against us

or just in our mind. And instead of blessing like God would have us to do, we go silent because

Of fearing light of Christ 's example in his teaching and what Peter is trying to draw here in

returning blessing for mistreatment, not just being silent, but returning the blessing of God.

How can we as Faith Community Bible Church fulfill this teaching to bless those who revile us

instead of fearing them?

Point 2:

What might that look like in your life. The first thing that we've seen from this passage this

morning is how in the beginning of verse 9, Peter makes it clear that believers shouldn't fear the

evil doers and the revilers. Instead, we should bless them.

But from the end of verse 9 to the beginning of verse 14, Peter also makes it clear that believers

shouldn't fear those who cause them earthly harm. At the end of verse nine, Peter says that

believers should return blessing for a specific reason. What does he say?

At the end of verse 9. Blessed for this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. Now,

there's a lot that's going on here between verses 9 through 12 that I'm not going to draw out as

fully as I like, but this is very important here. At the end, he says bless to obtain a blessing.

So a question that I hope you'd ask at this moment is, well, when am I going to get this

blessing? If I do this thing, if I return blessing to those who revile me, when am I going to get this

blessing? That's a very important question.

For this text, I think there are three possible answers. One is that you'll receive this blessing in

this lifetime Or the second one might be in eternity. Or another answer that could be to this is

some combination of the two, a blessing in this lifetime and in eternity. Now that question, when

will I receive this blessing?

I'd love to have you guys discuss in your life groups because there's a lot of nuances in those

various things, but I think Peter 's primary focus in this passage is that this blessing will receive

is eternal blessing. I think he's trying to get the believers' minds and hearts fixed on eternal

things even as they face those who could cause them earthly harm through revilers and the evil

doers and those who will cause suffering for righteousness’ sake. There are a few reasons I

think that, but the main one is the connection between the words obtain a blessing

And the word translated inheritance in one Peter chapter one and verse #4 f1st. Peter 3:9 uses

a verb form of the noun form that's translated inheritance in first Peter 1. If you have your Bibles,

turn really quick to first Peter 1 and we'll read a few of these verses here. In these verses, Peter

is just setting the trajectory of the letter to say difficult things will arise, revilers and evil doers will

be out there. People can cause you earthly harm. But as you face those things, look to Christ,

look to eternal things. And here's what he says in verse 3. “Blessed be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a

living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is

imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you,”.

This is that similar word, the noun form of the verb in first Peter 3. This is the inheritance, and

it's an inheritance that's imperishable, undefiled and unfading. Where is it kept in heaven? For

you, who by God 's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed

in the last time In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been

grieved by various trials So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold

that perishes, though it's tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at

the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in

Him and rejoice with joy. That's inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your

faith, the salvation of your souls. In First Peter is clearly trying to get the believers to live with

eternity and view as they face trials in this present life.

In First Peter 3, the same theme continues. We see that with his use of the word blessing, we're

looking forward reviling an evil doing is happening now, right? People don't like the Christian

message, they don't like the Jesus that we represent, but we should live our lives in such a way

that's aligned with the future blessing that will obtain or inherit through the Gospel I don't know

about you,

Illustration:

If I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was going to inherit $30 million, I'd live my life pretty

differently right now. I wouldn't really think about saving, and I'd probably run up quite a bit of

debt.

Peter wants his readers to live differently now based on the certainty of their eternal inheritance.

And so in verses 10 through 12 of chapter three, he draws this out, and he drives this point

home by quoting. Psalm 34. Now here's really where I wish I could spend much more time. But

what I'm going to encourage you to do later, as I did this morning in all my prep, is go home and

read this Psalm, Psalm 34, and see how Peter is using it to drive this point home.

That there's security for those who the eyes of the Lord are upon Who that years of God Are

listening to there's eternal security in God Himself as we look to inherit this blessing OK, so he

moves from there and continues the same theme but drives it home just a little bit more in verse

#13 He asked a powerful rhetorical question here.

He says now based on this. Connected to the revilers and the evil doers and this eternal hope

that we have in God Himself. Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?

OK, that sounds interesting, but let's stop and think about what Peter 's doing here. All

throughout the book, he's acknowledged that suffering and harm comes from others.

That's really the point of this book, it stands strong in the gospel as people oppose you, your

faith, your community. He even says in verse 14 he says it again he says even if you should

suffer now for righteousness’ sake so he's clearly not saying. That believers will totally escape

earthly harm if they're zealous for good. He's making the point that earthly harm won't result in

eternal destruction for those who are walking in righteousness while waiting for their inheritance.

Their blessing and inheritance is secure no matter what others may do to them in this life.

When he says now who can harm you, he's saying, who can ultimately destroy you if you're

zealous for what is good? Because God 's eyes are fixed on those Who are walking in

righteousness, whose inheritance is guaranteed based on the blood of Jesus Christ This

teaching is similar to what Jesus teaches in Matthew 5. He says blessed are those who are

persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5 “Blessed

are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely

on my account. And then what he says is a bit crazy. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is

great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

So here in first Peter 3,Peter makes the same point that Jesus makes, and they both make the

same point that David makes in Psalm 56 when he says in God, I trust I shall not be afraid, what

can man do to me ? What can man do to me?

Application:

As a word of application maybe you're looking all around and seeing people and things that

could cause you earthly harm. Maybe if Peter asked you who is there to harm you, you'd say

everyone.

We live in a time that's overloaded with fear. We have access to stories about fear all over the

world through the news. How many news stories prompt some kind of fear in your hearts? For

me, many of them How many influencers on social media seem to build their channels solely

based on giving you a new thing to fear?

We live in this time where there's lots and lots and lots of things. We could fear lots and lots of

people that we could say I think could harm me. And what Peter is saying to you is you have no

need to fear them, even if they cause earthly harm.

For those of you who are in Christ, your inheritance is secure. Maybe we may be a church

community whose eyes are fixed on eternity with Christ Jesus as we navigate the challenges of

living in this current time.

Point 3:

We've seen this morning that as believers, Peter would not want us to fear the revilers and evil

doers, and he would not want us to fear those who can cause us earthly harm.

And here's where we're going to make a bit of a shift in our emphasis this morning. This is

where the biblical text turns. And in our Thinking today It's important for us to see that not only

are we not to fear in these ways. But we were to exchange our fears, our fear of others, our fear

of the revilers, the evildoers, those who can cause earthly harm With honoring and worshiping

Christ the Lord. Look with me at verse #14 again.

Peter says, have no fear of them, nor be troubled. And if we ended there, this would be a

sufficient exhortation to the church, but it would not be the entirety of what Peter is trying to

draw out.

Because he goes on and says, But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy Peter actually

draws these verses from Isaiah 8, which is just super amazing that he does that. In Isaiah 8, the

Kingdom of Judah was surrounded by warrior nations and the prophet delivered a message. He

says this “Do not call conspiracy all that these people call conspiracy And do not fear what they

fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear,

and let him be your dread.”

Peter applies these verses from Isaiah to a completely different historical context. But the

message is clear across the centuries. There are all kinds of people all around these 1st century

believers. And the people in Isaiah and our people here today, there's all kinds of people around

you that you could fear, but instead you're to honor and fear, worship Christ the Lord. This

honoring and fearing of the triune God is a reverential worship of the Lord of all the earth.

I think this is the theme really all throughout the book of Peter is he's concerned with the way we

worship in our living out of our Christian faith. And here again he says when you're afraid

Exchange that fear for worship of Christ the Lord How many of you have ever been faced with

an issue that's so complex and so complicated that you couldn't do anything else until you

figured it out?

Illustration:

How many of you have faced that? I faced that quite frequently, even for small things. An

example is when I lose my keys I feel like I can't do anything else until I find my keys and I get

stuck in that moment. My wife says I have another pair of keys. We can still go. I can't go until I

figure this issue out.

So often it's like this when we're living in fear of those around us. It's very easy for our fears to

overwhelm us and cause us in a sense to be stuck because we see our fears as giants.

Compared to an Ant sized God In reality though, and what Peter is trying to get us to see, is that

God is the giant in our fears and our problems are the ants.

This is what Peter 's getting at here. Instead of allowing our fears to mount until they're the

biggest things in our lives.

The Gospel enables us to live with an ever-increasing sober minded realization of the majesty

and magnitude of Christ the Lord. Do not fear, honor, Christ the Lord.

Application:

I'm not looking for anyone to raise their hands at this question, but I'd be interested in us to think

about something together. I wonder how many of us have spent more time this past week

thinking about the latest news stories that we have about the Creator of the whole earth.

It's so easy to be caught up and overwhelmed and fearful of what's going on in the news More

than we are grateful for God the Creator in His mighty work.

Again, I'm not asking for raised hands, but I wonder how many of us in here have spent more

hours this past week longing for the things that the Instagram influencer tells us we should long

for. Then we have longing for the holiness that God offers to us through His Son and the work of

the Spirit It's easy to fear missing out and not measuring up to our Instagram friends while

neglecting to be concerned about the spiritual life of our own souls

Here's where I'm going with this. The Gospel of Jesus Christ confronts our fearfulness and

reorients our perspective to see Christ the Lord as the giants He truly is. As we gaze more

deeply at the example of Jesus Christ, we realize again and again and again in ever deepening

measure that only to Jesus Christ belongs all the glory and the dominion, forever and ever Our

fears are like glory suckers taking our attention And service that rightfully belongs to Christ the

Lord. We're to exchange our fear for worshipful honoring of Christ.

But what exactly does this honoring look like in first Peter 3? In this section right here,

Peter doesn't leave his readers guessing. He helps us see how we honor Christ the Lord. In

verse 15 he says, .”In your hearts honor Christ the Lord is holy. Always being prepared to make

a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with

gentleness and respect.”

Now I mentioned this verse and preaching a few weeks ago and I commented on how this God

centered Christ saturated hope is a distinguishing factor between moral non-believers and

gospel transformed believers

In the context of these verses, Peter is pointing out that our reverential worship of Christ the

Lord Is lived out in a way that's identifiably hopeful.

The ultimate hope that we have in Christ, even in the middle of the difficulties of life, the things

that would cause us to fear this hope is noticeable.

Peter desires that we would honor Christ the Lord by being prepared to point to Christ as the

source of our hope.

Christ is the reason for our hope more than anything else, what Peter is pressing here

is that a believer whose entire life has been transformed by Jesus Christ would be ready to

make an evangelistic defense of Christ as the source of our transformation.

Point 4:

There's all kinds of things that we could point to that are helpful in our lives, but when people

ask you Why are you living your life in this way Do you point to your feel good strategies, your

things that you do to get yourself pumped up for the morning or do you point to Jesus Christ and

do you tell them He is the reason for my hope and anything else that comes and all the fears

that threaten Christ is my hope.

That's what Peter would have us to do as we worship Christ the Lord Peter says that we're to

honor Christ the Lord in this defense of our hope.

But finally, this morning, Peter goes a layer deeper by writing about what it looks like to honor

Christ the Lord and the people around us in our gospel defense. He writes in verses 15 and 16

that we should make our defense with gentleness and respect . Having a good conscience.

A good first question that we should ask of the text right here this morning is who is this

gentleness and respect and good conscience directed towards Peter has two relational

categories in mind. Believers are to operate with gentleness and respect and a good

conscience, which conscience simply means our awareness of what we believe to

be right and wrong. Believers are to operate in these ways, gentleness, respect, and a good

conscience in their vertical and horizontal relationships.

The first of these two categories is our vertical relationship with the Triune God. Remember one

of Peter 's primary concerns Throughout this section is that his readers would honor Christ the

Lord and he desires that all of us would live with gentleness and respect toward God and

others. It's this kind of living that keeps our conscience good or clear before God The second

relational category that Peter 's getting at here is our horizontal relationships

These are the relationships with the community around us and primarily in this context, with the

non-believers around us. So as we endeavor to honor Christ by giving a reason defense of the

hope that's in us, we're to do it with gentleness and respect to those we're engaged with. And

this gentle and respectful approach will be part of keeping our conscience clear before God.

Ultimately, what Peter 's advocating for here is that we would honor Christ In our defense of our

hope Engaging with the community around us in a way that's befitting of those who've been

transformed by the gospel.

Application:

So, in order to apply this, I'd like to ask, what does it look like for us as the church community,

the people of FCBC, to make a defense of the hope that's in us with gentleness, respect, and a

good conscience toward God and others?

In many ways, I think we as a church do a decent job of this. Many visitors comment about our

initial friendliness, and I also think we tend to have a gentle approach as a church community.

Praise be to God that those things are true.

One thing I think we may struggle with though, as a church community is understanding how

we're perceived by those in our local community.

Outside the walls of the church, we heard a wonderful missions update about what's going on in

Mexico. And praise God that our church cares about spreading, about spreading the gospel all

across the world. But I'm concerned that at times we as a church can tend to be inward focused

in our local community. It may be a weakness of ours that we don't have a good read on what

people around us, our neighbors, and our coworkers think about our church community In many

ways, when we engage with non-believers in our current time, we're often already operating at a

deficit because of how Christians as a group are viewed by broader culture. Many non-believers

who've never met someone from FCBC already think that Christians are hateful, bigoted, and

ignorance. So what am I saying How am I advocating for us to proclaim the gospel with

gentleness, respect, and a good conscience in our modern environment?

I'm trying to help all of us see that we need to labor diligently in our conversations with others to

understand where they're coming from and how they perceive the Christian community in

general And to treat them gently and respectfully on the basis of these things.

Illustration:

It's almost like this, if I know my wife has had a difficult day with our toddler boys when I come

home, it would be wise of me to be extra mindful of her need for gentleness and kindness and

respect in our interactions, lest I become the new target of her stress and anxiety in that

moment.

We can think of it similarly in our evangelism in relating to non-believers. You or this church may

not have personally said or done anything that was unkind. Or unnecessarily offensive. But it

would be wise to relate to non-believers of our day as if they're prone to perceive you as being

part of the problem’

What am I saying? What am I trying to get at? What I think

Peter is trying to get out of here. Here it is. May God keep us from adding unnecessary

roadblocks to the gospel by being rude or disrespectful Instead, may we always be mindful of

the ways that Christ suffered and died for even the worst of sinners.

Conclusion:

As I closed this morning, I want us to note that First Peter 3:9-17 functions as a clear call to

exchange the fear of man with Worshipful honoring of Christ the Lord.

Instead of fearing the revilers and fearing those who can cause earthly harm, were to honor

Christ the Lord in our gentle

Respectful display of the hope that's within us, knowing that verse 17. “It's better to suffer for

doing good. If that's God 's will, then for doing evil”.

In making this call. Peter recognizes the weakness of our fearful humanity and the power of the

gospel to reorient our wrongly placed fear.

From the very first moments I mentioned this in the beginning of the fall of humanity, men and

women have been plagued by fear. In Genesis chapter 310, Adam tells God, “I heard you in the

garden, and I was afraid. Because I was naked, and I hid myself.’” Instead of knowing full

communion with God as you once had. Sin caused Adam to be afraid at the approach of God.

Fast forward through many centuries and Bible books to the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, and

guess who's there? Peter. Bold, bold Peter. Not so bold. In this moment, he falls prey to the

dark hold of the fear of man. And what did he do? He denied knowing Christ three times So

surely it was with all the compassion of one who had fallen to the fear of man that he wrote in

first Peter chapter 5:7, “casting all your anxieties on God because He cares for you.”

Peter knew the transforming care of God, and he knew that exchanging fear of man for

fear of God can only happen as the good news of Jesus Christ reorients us. This is clearly

articulated by Paul in Romans when he said you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back

into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoptions, adoption as sons by whom we cry.

ABBA, Father.

So as we end this morning church, I would encourage you as you face the fears that arise while

living in this broken world, would run to God the Father because it's only through Him that we

have a true and steady life changing hope Christ the Lord, Amen.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we confess our fearfulness We confess the many ways

that our fears have distracted us from true worship of You Lord, we ask that by the glorious

display of your gospel. We would honor and worship you and that in doing so you could be in

our minds, massive and huge and incomprehensible as you truly are. Lord, we ask that you

would work in our lives in this way and that when we see you as big, our fears of others would

be very, very small. Jesus’ name I pray, Amen