How To Overcome Fear And Be Confident
TALK IT OVER
Ps Kev shared a great message today about Outlasting our Fears. Take some time with your family or Village to chat about the following discussion questions.
What was your key take away from today’s message?
Discussion Questions:
Share your fears with your group. Big and small! What do you fear most?
Read Daniel 6:1-28. What lessons can we learn from Daniel’s experience in the lion’s den?
Fear of God and Fear of Man are discussed in the message. How do these fears impact our decision-making and actions?
How does being "fully persuaded" in the sovereignty of God help us overcome fear and remain faithful in challenging situations?
If you fear God - you will fear NO ONE else!
If you fear man - you will fear EVERYTHING else!
Ps Kev encouraged us to keep our focus on God rather than the circumstances around us. How can we practically apply this principle in our daily lives to overcome fear?
In what ways can we relate to the fear of Daniel and King Darius in our own lives? Can you think of personal experiences where you had to choose between obeying God or compromising due to fear of consequences?
Take some time as a group to pray through the fears you are facing in life today. Sharing your fears with trusted people will help you focus on the faithfulness of God.
TRANSCRIPT
Today we're going to look at a very interesting topic because outlasters go further and faster. That's our catch cry. Not as in by going faster and frantic, but they go faster in their spiritual development and depth to be able to handle things. And they do it by following the master. Now this one on fears.
I have battled with so many fears growing up in my life. And they still come back at different times and in different forms. Because I was very sick as a child, I nearly died up until... three times up until about the age of nine. I was very sick with all sorts of different issues. That left me with a dreadful fear of death.
That sat with me for a long, long time. And then at the same time, my mum and dad had a wonderful marriage, but it was rocky. And there were times when it's, it was very unstable and it's like, who do you want to live with? And so that left me with a fear of being alone. Like I was going to get abandoned or something out there.
And then I got, then I developed this fear about being in strange surroundings. I didn't like to go to places that I didn't know. And one day I was about 10, I had to go to this birthday party of this young girl at school. And some mum dropped me off, it was dark, I had no idea where I was. And they're all sitting around doing stuff.
And then... They all sat around and this someone reached for a bottle. I didn't know what this was, and they put the bottle down like this and they spun it. Anyway, it landed on me, and this girl was coming in for the kill. She wanted her kiss. She and, and I, all I remember was blacking out and running. And I ran and I ran and I ran.
So, far away. And I kept running and they chased me and I ran for blocks, several blocks. And then I realized, I don't know where I am. And now I had another fear because now I was completely lost. Mom and dad had to come and pick me up. And they said, we don't know where he is. Had to drive around and find me around them.
I'm just hiding behind litter boxes. fears. I should have probably just gone in for the kiss. It would have been a lot easier but I didn't understand that I might have enjoyed that at that time. All I wanted to do was run. But we have these things. As kids we have certain fears. As adults, when you get to young adults, you have different fears.
Like what am I going to do with the rest of my life? What's all that kind of stuff? And then you get married, then you get different fears again around your kids and then you get older and you start to fear about whether your hair is going to stay or go and why are parts of your body Like gravity is what's happening here.
You have other fears that go on but it's part of who we are. And the reality is we can't escape those. I heard about a guy once, he walked into a psychiatrist's office. It turns out it was his mate that was a psychiatrist. He said, Oh, I don't know you. He said, Yeah, mate, I've got this fear and I really need help.
He said, Okay, what is it? He said, Every time I lie down, I fear that someone is under my bed is going to leap out and get me. He said, Do you think you can help me? And he said, Yeah, but you probably need to carve out about 10 months and I'll be able to get through this in 10 months. But it'll cost you 100 a week and you have to come for 10 months.
So he said, Oh, well, let me think about it. And so he went off and he thought about it and he started adding up all those numbers. That's five grand to get rid of a fear of someone on a bedside. He went, he gets desperate. He gets desperate so he decides to go and see a pastor in a church. And he gets cured in one visit.
And he bumps into his mate again, the psychiatrist, in the grocery store. He says, why haven't you turned up for your therapy? He goes, well, I don't need it. I just went to saw the pastor and I'm healed. I'm set free. He goes, wow. He said, what was, what was the advice that he, he gave you? He said, well, he just sat me down, said, tell me about this.
So I said, oh, I, I, you know, I fear every time I lay down, there's something under my bed. So the pastor said, you know what I want you to do? I want you to go home. I want you to go into your garage, get the sore and chop the legs off your bed. That was his advice. And he said, healed. So he said, my bed's now just sitting straight on the floor and I don't ever worry about someone under the bed.
See, pastors are spiritual, but sometimes it's very practical as well. And you're going to discover that this book... Which is a library of ancient documents, has lots of practical wisdom, and lots of spiritual wisdom as well. So, can we overcome our fears? Yes we can. Can you become immune to them? No you can't.
Because you're human. You're human. You know, we're body, soul, and spirit, and so we're, we're integrally connected, and the emotions get in the way, and so you can't be immune, but you can get across them. And I think sometimes, most people that have followed Jesus for a long period of time, we don't forget that we're Jesus followers, we actually forget that we're human at times.
So let's test you, because you know, do you know how many fears there are in the world? There's hundreds of them. And scientists are naming them all the time. I wish I had that job. I'd love to name some fears. But do you know what the top fear is? And it is the same fear every single year. Do you know what it is?
Public speaking. What I'm doing right now. It's terrifying. And you ask anybody that comes up here. It's terrifying. But I want you to think about that. It's like two steps ahead of death. Which means... If you're going to be invited to the funeral, you would rather be in the box than talking about the person in the box.
That's the option you, so it's a real thing. But let's see what else you know. What about arachnophobia? What's that a fear of? Spiders, right, okay. What about claustrophobia? Oh, tight spaces. Now, I know every young person I know has struggled with this next one. Some people have struggled right into their young adult.
Some people have actually never, ever got out of it. They've just lived with it their entire life. It's called ergophobia, and it's actually the fear of work. Fear of work. Oh my lord, I had to perspire this morning. It was terrible in the yard. I went to someone the other day, said, oh, I'm gonna have to take next week off.
I said, well, I worked 30 hours this week. 30 hours! I did 30 hours yesterday. There's only 24 in a day, so I'm doing pretty good. And I was like, what is it? But some people, it's just this fear of work. Now, here's something that's gonna interest you. What about this? What about this one? Anatodaphobia. It's not a fear of Anita, although it should be.
Anatodaphobia. What is it a fear of? It's an irrational fear. That somewhere, somewhere, a goose or a duck is watching you.
Some sort of goose is riding this stuff. But this is, you could type it in. It's a legitimate fear. And then there's leophobia, which is a fear of lions, which sets us up for where we want to go. But I got to tell you, I, I fear all cats. Just all cats. I, I, I've, I have struggled and I see no purpose for them.
I, I just, I can't see anything. And, and I had a little Burmese cat once, and I watched it, it ran up the top, ran across the curtains, ran down, this guy came to the door, leapt up his leg, pulled out his talon, tore his earlobe apart, blood went everywhere, and I thought, you know, I'm... Done with cats. The only thing worth for cats is rabbits with nasty big pointy teeth.
That's the only thing that's worth worse than them. So anyway, enough of that nonsense. Let's get on to, we're going to talk about Daniel and it's going to be about Daniel in the lion's den. I'm going to read a lot of scripture and I'm not going to put it up on the screen. Because of the fact there's 28 verses, and it's too confusing to see and hear.
But faith comes by hearing, and I want you just to hear the story as I read it to you as quickly as I can. But just a little bit of backstory. Daniel's one of the exiles that were taken out of Israel and brought into Babylon in 593 BC. And He was brought there because he was considered to be one of the best of the best and they brought them and then they reprogrammed them and they gave them new names and they assimilated them into society.
So Daniel's there and of course he had three friends that Anne talked about a few weeks ago. Can anyone remember who they were? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Nothing to do with Bendigo Bank. Someone said we've got a bank with Bendigo. No, it's Abednego. But anyway, Daniel proved to be so incredibly valuable because he could actually interpret dreams.
And so he finds himself thrust up, working very, very closely with the king. So now, and this is King Darius, so now I'm going to read to you, so you're not going to see stuff and I'll pull things up every so often, I'm just going to read to you the story and I want you just to listen. Auditory. Just listen.
Faith comes by hearing and see if you can capture what's going on here. Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his excellent exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. At this the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his gut.
in his conduct in government affairs, but they weren't able to do so. They could find no corruption in him. He was trustworthy. He was neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally, these men said, We will never find a basis for charge against this man, Daniel. Now, who else had that said about him? Wasn't that said about Jesus?
No basis of charge against this guy. So there's a bit of imagery going on here. We find no basis of a charge against this man, Daniel, unless... We can do something in relation to his law of his God. Wow. So Daniel's come in as an exile. He's rising up through the ranks. He's a kind of a bit of an all star. It's a military era where Israel's been formed as a military nation to deal with the pagan nations.
The others are all jealous of him and they're determined to get rid of him, but they can't find anything to get rid of him about except for his faith. Got to have you a question. Have you ever had your faith used against you in a time to try and get at you? Hmm, this is interesting. Let's read on. So the administrators and the satraps went to the king as a group and they said, May King Darius live forever.
Nice little bit of sucking up at the start. The royal administrators, the prefects, the satraps, the advisors, the governors, man, they all came. We've all agreed that the king should issue an edict. An enforcer decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next 30 days except you, your majesty, should be thrown into the lion's den.
Wow, these guys want Daniel gone bad. They want to get him out of here. So then they go a step further. Now your majesty, issue the decree, and put it in writing, so it cannot be altered. In accordance with the law of the Medes and the Persians, and it cannot be repealed. So King Darius puts the decree in writing.
Oops. For Daniel, the writing is on the wall, and the noose is tightening. When Daniel learned about the decree, that had first been published, he said, Holy shnikes! No, he didn't say that at all. He went upstairs, to his upstairs room, where the windows were open, towards Jerusalem, and three times a day, he...
Got down on his knees and he prayed and gave thanks to God just as he had always done. So Daniel is fully persuaded the only way he's getting out of this is if God shows up. And he's not prepared to compromise. He's not prepared to compromise one inch. Like, I'm thinking to myself, it's only 30 days. Move your prayer room, prayer from the front of the window to the back room, just for 30 days.
Just, why have you got to do it right there in the big open for all to see? Just go to the back room quietly. See, there's reason coming in. But Daniel doesn't do that. I'm not doing that. Like, my dad always taught me, he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day. I'm pretty sure it wasn't his. I think I'm, I mean, Monty Pythons.
I'm not sure. But Daniel is fully persuaded. He is fully persuaded. And he is not gonna bow down. So therefore, he will accept the consequences of his actions. He's fully prepared to accept that I'm not changing. I'm not bowing down. I'm doing this. Then, these men went as a group again. Why are they always going as a group?
What are they, a boy band or something? I don't know. And they find Daniel praying, and they're asking for help. And they go, ooh, what's this? So they go to the king, and they spoke about the royal decree. Did you not publish a decree that during the next 30 days, anyone who prays to any god or human being except for you, your majesty, would be thrown at the lion's den?
The king answered, the decree stands in accordance with the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be repealed. And now fear is about to leap onto another person. Then they said to the king, Daniel is one of those exiles from Judah. He pays no attention to you, your majesty. Or to the degree you put in writing.
He's still praised three times a day. And King Darius realizes he's been manipulated and tricked by these evil, jealous people. And now, look what the king tries to do. When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed. Why was he greatly distressed? Because he knows what Daniel's God can do. He's greatly distressed.
He's determined to rescue Daniel and make every... He made every effort until sundown to save him. Darius has got fear going on now because he knows this is not a good move to start attacking Daniel, one of God's favourites, so he's not real happy about this. Then let's read on. Then the men went as a group to Darius and said, Remember your majesty that according to the law of Medes and Persians, no decree or edict that the king issues can be changed.
It's in writing. So the king gave the order. And brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, May the God, may your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you. And a stone was put out the front. Another nice imagery of what happened with Christ. King sealed it. No man's allowed to get to it.
His fate could not be chained. The king then returned to the palace and spent the night without eating. And without any entertainment being brought to him. He could not sleep. Fear is robbing Darius. Because he knows he's been instead. At first dawn, the king gets up and hurries to the lion's den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice.
Not sure what that... Daniel? I don't know. Anguished voice. Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions? So he's in anguish. Now... I'm not Daniel, but if that was me, I'd be going, You throw me in the den? Take this for a little while longer.
I'm gonna go silent. Let you sweat a little bit. But maybe Daniel thought, I don't know how long that thing with the muzzle's gonna work. I better just get on with it. But, he doesn't do that. Daniel says, King, may the king live forever. My God has sent an angel. He shut the mouth of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight.
Nor have I done you any wrong as well, your majesty. See, protection was given to Daniel. Protection was given because he was innocent. Then look what the king says. The king was overjoyed, it says. He was overjoyed and he gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den. Wow. And there was no wound found on Daniel.
Because he trusted in his God. Then fear leapt to the other parties. At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lion's den along with their wives and children. Woo! You want to be careful before you start accusing someone and making things up. And before they reached the floor of the den the lions overpowered them and crushed their bones.
Oh my goodness! The king, Darius, is so angry with these guys. He said, Not only you're going to die, but there will be none of your lineage will be available anymore. It all finishes right here with you. You will never do this again. Wow! These divine mentors will tell you, you've got to do your self devotions.
You learn so much in this. So many lessons in here. Then here's the final thing, then King Darius wrote to all the nations and the peoples of every language in all the earth. May you prosper greatly, he said, I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel.
For he's the living God and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed. His dominion will never end. He rescues, he saves, he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth. And he rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. And then it says this, And so Daniel prospered during the reign of King Darius.
He became an outlaster. He went further and faster. What an amazing story. There is so much in there. But Daniel trusted God. He trusted. And when he did, When something happened, he changed nothing. He prayed exactly the same way. He was consistent in who he was. He lived his faith out loud. He accepted the consequences.
He walked into the den. Hoping for the best, but willing to accept whatever came out. And he got the miracle, and he was protected. And so he went further and faster. Wow. What a story. What an account. See, these divine mentals, they are written in here for a purpose. Because we need to understand some things.
Courage is not the absence of fear. It is not the absence of fear. Courage is pressing on in spite of fear. Here it comes. Maybe it's not, right? In spite of fear. It's pressing on in spite of fear. It's prioritizing God's commands of our emotional fears. It's knowing what God says, and it's on the inside of your faith window, your belief window, and sticking to that.
This is so important because you and I are all going to find ourselves at a lion's den. You know, some day you wake up and there's a lump somewhere and you go, Oh, you go to the doctors. By the time you get there, you haven't even got it. You haven't even got out of reception and you've got 13 different diagnoses and you know for sure it's cancer and you haven't even gotten the door.
That's what fear does. It goes, runs rampant. Some of us have financial things. We've made some poor decisions and we're noticing it's all coming in and you feel the lines closing in. Some of us are getting frustrated because we're We're trying to get the right school to be going into university. And we goofed off, we haven't been there.
And so we haven't got it. Some of us have relationships that, that we desperately are trying to fix and we can't fix them. And we sense we're in the middle of the lion's den. Some of you young ones is going into university. You better get this nailed because when you hit university, you will be mocked for your faith and encouraged to cast it aside for sin.
And you better be like Daniel. You better be rock solid on who you are and who your God is. And that's why the Bible exists. So that we can understand and see from people that work through these things what's going on. I was, I've been thinking a lot about this as I was praying and I'm thinking, Why did God put us here at this point in time in history?
Have you ever thought about that? Why'd you get born here? I always thought I should have been born around Elvis. You know, that's the time. Thank you very much. I, I mean, I just, I just felt like that, but why here? I mean, you could have been born in 1200 AD, 1500 AD, maybe just not long after Eden and the thing, but, but why here?
Why are you, you, you, you, you, why are you born at this point in time in history, when nations are again rejecting God? And there's so much political, and there's so much social unrest, and I'll tell you why, because I think we're in the last... leg of a relay race. And the person that holds the baton in the last leg is called the anchor.
And the reason he's called the anchor is because he has to be the fastest. He has to be the fastest. Because He has got to make up all the ground that's been lost. Not only make it up, but then pass the ones and win the race. I think our generation is in the final leg. And we've been handed the baton because we have the ability to handle what's coming down the pipe, what's happening, and remain faithful to God and allow Him to work in and through us.
I think that's why we're here. Too much. Honestly, if we're going to be really honest, You look at the stats on the church in the, in the West, we are way behind. And God needs a generation to step back up and start pulling us right back into the forefront again. Because we've forgotten who we are.
Everything's become about social stuff and we haven't realized that we're citizens of heaven. We're ambassadors of Christ. We don't, when, this is not our home. Our home is in heaven. We're passing through and there's a job to be done. And there is some ground to be made up. People need to see people that love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then out of that place will love them.
They desperately need to see that. Jesus even refined it down into two. It dipped those two down into one. He said, love your neighbor. Love one another the way that I've loved you. Love is the conquering thing. But you have to stand firm. We can't compromise. Do you think Daniel would have got rescued if he hadn't already established this relationship, and if he hadn't already had the kind of character, kind of integrity, and if he hadn't already built that all into his life?
I think he'd have been kitty cat litter. What made the difference is he knew his God. Listen, there's only two real fears that everything comes out of. One is the fear of God, and the other one is the fear of man. Fear of God is a deep respect for God, and it compels us to obey Him. It compels us to obey Him.
Fear of man is a deep worry. It's a deep worry that forces us to compromise. Forces us to compromise. So you must say, well, what does that mean? Well, it means you got to ask a question regularly. What's more important to you? What does God think? Or what do people think? What's more important? What does God think?
Or what does people think? If you're worried about what people think, once again, written in that book, it tells you, fear of man is a snare to your soul. If you're frightened, you're trying to please human beings all the time, your soul will actually become ensnared. But if you fear God, it says that's the beginning of wisdom.
The beginning for Daniel was the fear of God. He had the relationship with God. And it's not a fear. People go, oh, does that mean I've got to cower at him and be frightened of him? No, no. It's a healthy respect. It's a healthy respect. Best way for us to understand it is like electricity. You've got electricity running through your home.
Does wonderful things. Can heat, can cool, can charge all the bits and pieces. It's wonderful. But if you don't respect that... It'll kill you in an instant. We're going into storm season. What are the ads we're going to see if the lines are down? Don't go near them. Why? Because unless you have a healthy fear and respect and honour for that electricity even though you can't see it it'll kill you dead in an instant.
Now God will not kill you dead in an instant. But... It's the same principle. You have to have a healthy fear of him. He's not just our mate and he's not just our Fran, which is partially true, but he's the creator of the heavens and the earth. He's majestic. He's all powerful. You read some of the things that he can do and sometimes if you get on the bad side of him, there's Israel found out it didn't go so well.
He's incredibly powerful. So it bequeaths us to respect him and to honor him, and that's what Daniel was doing. Let me show you just a kind of a diagram about, I think we've got a diagram, I'm not sure. There it is. This is how this whole thing works. Happened for Daniel, it'll happen for you in every circumstance you're in.
You'll have a little bit of concern. Oh, this is not going so good. What are they going on here? Then you'll start to get cautious because then you go, oh man, well, what's my options here? What were Daniel's options? Well, he could, he could have take his prayer meeting out in the back room and just gone private for, only had to do it for 30 days.
But he wasn't... Prepared to compromise for 30 days. He was going to be who he is. So then from here, two things happen once you've reached the cautious phase. You will either doubt, you'll keep doubting, and then fear will take over and you will compromise. You'll take your prayer meeting to the back room.
You'll go to university and you'll stop talking about Jesus. And you'll put it into the back room and you'll compromise or you say, no, no, I know my God. I'm fully persuaded about my God. I will trust my God to whatever end it is. And that leads to faith and that leads to obedience. See, Daniel didn't obey God because he wanted something out of God.
When he went into that lion's den, he wasn't going to go, God, because I want you to do this. You better come and fix this up and get these lions. No, no, Daniel went in there. Out of his relationship with God, he obeyed God. 'cause he was fully persuaded about who he is. He was fully persuaded about who God is in the West.
Now we've really, we kind of struggle a bit at the moment because we've very become very result orientated in our faith. And it's like, well, like if that happened today, if this come, if this kind of event was happening today, most Christians going, well God, I'm happy to go in the lines then. I really am, because I serve you, as long as you make sure those kitty cats are muzzled and tied up before I go in to the lion's den.
Or I'm happy to serve you, I'm sure, I'm happy to pick up a towel and serve, as long as you do this for me, as long as I get that promotion, or as long as I make this and it's transactional. Daniel wasn't like that. He wasn't doing this because of the fact he wanted to get something out of God. He stepped into there and he never compromised because he knew who God was.
He was fully persuaded and he was not going to be shaken off it. We read about it in our Soap Devotions only about a week ago in Acts chapter 5, I think it was. Where Peter and the disciples, they're sharing faith in Christ, and they're telling everyone about Jesus, and it's upsetting all the religious folk, and they come down and they get stuck in him and said, You gotta stop talking about Jesus.
You're making us look bad. Yeah, that's the point. Never mind. Stop talking about Jesus. We're gonna put you in jail. Right, okay. Well, if you're going to put us in jail, we're going to sing. And so they go in jail and then they sing. And then an angel turns up. It's funny, another angel thing in a den or something.
Turns up and then rescues them. Sets them free. And you know what the boys said? They said, man, that was close. Let's get the heck out of here. No, they didn't. They went straight back down and started talking again about Jesus. Telling people, Jesus, don't worry about that. Jesus, haven't you heard about the death, burial, resurrection?
Man, he's the one that forgave our sins. We got access back to a relationship with God. And they're just talking on and they find them again and said, didn't you understand? We told you not to talk like this. And this was their response. We must obey God rather than men.
Here's the kicker. If you fear God. You'll fear nothing else.
I'm serious. If you truly fear God, and you have that connection with God, and you're fully persuaded in who He is, the creator of the heavens and the earth, and He has your life in His hands, and He's got it all mapped out, you will never fear anyone or anything else. But welcome to my world. If you fear man, which is where I was, you fear everything else.
Because I don't know if you noticed, but if you, it says if you fear man, that's one. There's a lot of these mankind people out there, both male and female. And some of the ladies are scary too, you know, but if you fear, you fear everything else, why? Because you're, you're terrified of everybody. You're terrified of everybody and everything, and it's at the basis, at the core of it.
So here you go. Here's the lessons for us out of this, out of this here is, you've got to be fully persuaded, fully persuaded that God will protect you in whatever way he sees fit. No threats, no punishment, no consequences will sway you off what you know to be. That God is a good God. He has my best interest at heart and I will trust Him to whatever end.
I would really like to not be eaten by the lions, but if I do, that's okay. I'll go to heaven and we'll work out what's next. It's that kind of level of just fully being fully persuaded. I remember the time that I, I, I haven't got time to tell this but I will anyway. Not long after I was married, I've always struggled with sickness.
I don't know why, and if you happen to be listening, Lord, I don't know why. But I still, still have to struggle. And I, and so I have to use some wisdom things and then, and I also have to have the faith thing happening on. And anyway, it reached a place where... I had like 10 different specialists that were trying to figure something out and I had umpteen medications And so I just stepped up one day and I said to my wife and my mother I said This is it.
No more doctors. No more pills. God heals me or I die now I thought they would revere me as a spiritual giant in that moment. That didn't quite work out that way But I had to hold my ground in that because I knew that we'd reached a place that I was fully persuaded that God had to do something. I could not continue on like this.
Daniel was fully persuaded. And he was willing, whatever the consequences were, for living that faith out loud, right there. If that man's getting eaten by lions, well that's cool. I'm getting eaten by lions for Jesus. I'm not getting eaten by lions because I've compromised. So fully persuaded. And then you've got to fix your eyes.
Fix your eyes on who you're walking with, not on what you're walking through. Fix your eyes, not on who you, on who you're walking with, sorry, not what you're walking through. You've got to keep your eyes on... The who? Him. On him. Not on the circumstances because doubt leads to fear and fear leads to compromise.
If you lose sight of Jesus, listen to this, if you lose sight of Jesus, you lose sight. That's it. You lose sight of Jesus, and you're in the dark in every area. So you've got to work hard to keep this. Daniel never lost sight. You know, there's nothing like a good old lion's den every so often to really work things out.
When Anne and I got caught in the earthquake in Christchurch, and there was a lot of people died in that, and it was like 65 different aftershocks. You know what? I couldn't find an atheist anywhere. Everybody suddenly became really excited about knowing God. Pastor Wayne tells a story that he was flying into Nashville, and he said it was in a storm and a lightning bolt hit the plane.
Sparks flew everywhere. He said it was and where everything went silent and he said it was amazing. Everybody became a Christian. And he said I didn't even have to do an altar call. They just suddenly started praying. It was amazing. See, don't fear the lions then because it's not until you know that Jesus is all you need.
So when you don't know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you got. That's when you discover. That's when you discover it. But you have to keep your eyes focused. I was taught this when I was racing motorcycles. And one of the first things they taught me is when you come up to a bend, make sure that you look out of the bend.
Don't look at the front of the guardrail or the middle of the guardrail. You must look out of the bend. And I go, why? And he goes, whatever you look at, you become one with. They even understand this at a practical level. He said, if you will look, if you look at the guardrail, or you look at the tree, or you look somewhere in there, that's what you're gonna hit.
But if you look out there where you want to go, he said, your brain and the whole body will do, swift shift everything and move you across. It's the same thing. You've got to keep your eyes on Jesus. And you've got to know that He will help you outlast your fears in the midst. In the midst of it. So, let me just bring this to a close.
Let me read to you the part again. Wouldn't it be great if this was said about us all? Oh man, you know, Terry, Phil, Mary. They so distinguish themselves among everybody, their exceptional qualities. Man, the king wants to give them the whole kingdom. And yeah, and even though we try to like to knock them down, man, we can't find anything.
We can't find anything to pin on them. They just, they're trustworthy, there's no negligence in them. Man, the only thing we can do anything to hurt these people is we've got to do something around their faith. That's the only way we're going to get rid of them. But we're too smart because we've read Daniel.
And we're not going to fall for that.
Concern leads to caution. And you will pick one of two roads out of the lion's den. Whatever it is for you, one or two. You'll either go down the doubt area, and you'll go down fear, and you'll go down compromise, or you'll stay in the trust area. And faith and obedience. And that's how you become an outlaster.
That's how you go further and faster. This event catapulted Daniel's influence. Some of us are too frightened of the lion's den. We're too, we're too worried about it. We don't want to face it. It's like, I'm too scared. I don't want to go in there. Why? If God is with you, if you're fully persuaded that God is with you, you don't need to fear anything.
You'll still have the concern there because you're human. You can't get rid of that part. But if you become fully persuaded, Fully persuaded and you decide I'm gonna step into this and you know what? I don't care about the consequences If I'm gonna die or this relationship's gonna end or we're going down.
We're going down with Jesus Because he can still rebuild out of the ashes and the ruins. Amazing. Amazing. Man, I pray that we are all outlasters. Because I do feel like we are in the last link of a rerace. And we've got some, we've got some ground to make up again. And God needs us to step up, trust him, be fully persuaded.
Let's pray. Father, I just thank you for this message, and I thank you for Pastor Wayne's heart to always be sharing, and, and some of the things that you've taught him, and we've adapted and that, but, look, some of us probably are sitting here now, and we know we've compromised and we've let the enemy think, and we're, we're in a place of disaster, and we don't know what to do, and, and there's such a powerful word, and yet it's such an, a word that we like to invo avoid, but it's the word repent.
We just need to repent and acknowledge we're doing things our way. We're trying to fix everything our way, and we repent and turn back to you and said, Lord, we'll be fully persuaded that you will help us out of this circumstance and this situation. And there may be others, Lord, are in the den right now and maybe starting to falter and starting to look and grapple and trying to latch on to all sort of any things that might help.
But Lord, help us to fix our eyes back on you, to be fully persuaded. That you are the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You are the creator of the heavens and the earth. You know my beginning from my end. You knew me before you even formed me. And you'll know me when this life is over too. Help us to have that kind of confidence.
And then maybe there are some that... You know, maybe you're sitting and listening online or in the room and you haven't made the decision to fully trust Jesus and you're kind of going, I know, I don't understand everything this guy's saying, but something's going on in my heart. Well, what's going on in your heart is God drawing you.
He's trying to get ahold of you and he's trying to say, Hey, listen, I will be the unshakable foundation in your lion's den. Put your trust in me. Stop looking to everywhere else and stop looking to yourself and just acknowledge you are broken and you can't fix yourself. Your sins separate you from God and then look for Jesus and say, Lord, I choose to stop fixing myself and I choose to receive Jesus as my Lord and my Savior.
He paid for my sins. He took my penalty and He rose from the dead to give, to give me eternal life. Maybe that's your starting point is getting out of the initial den where you sat in darkness without God. Whatever it is, allow God to meet you in it. And if you're sitting in here, talk to someone afterwards about what's going on.
Talk to someone online.
Father, we all want to be outlasters. We all want to go further and we all want to go faster. Because we want to make a difference for you. And there are so many people that don't know Christ. And look, we're part of this relay. And how will they know if we don't move from the first 10 years that you had with us where you just tore us down and rebuilt us to now to the second 10 where it's like, now it's about movement, it's about multiplication, it's about how do you do one church in multiple locations with multiple expressions.
People all the time, every week are coming in here. Could you put one of these in my suburb? Could you put one of these in my area? Look, I don't know what you're saying, but if that's on your heart, we're going to need a lot more people to run anchor. We need a lot more people to step up, a lot more people to say, you know what?
I'm willing to pay whatever price to see people reach for Jesus, to escape a world that is completely lost. So Lord, I just thank you for the way you lead us and the way that you guide us. In Jesus name, Amen.