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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Why The Shepherds Were Afraid

Fear Not: The Bible’s Most Frequent Command

Faith Produces Action, Fear Paralyzes

Power, Love, And A Sound Mind

Who Controls The Future?

Step Out In Obedience

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Welcome back to day three of the Daily Blade, the last day of this year. We're going to keep going in Luke chapter 2. And the Bible says this in verse 8. It says, And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear, and the angel said to them, Fear not. Well, first, on a very practical level, I think there's a number of reasons that the shepherds were filled with great fear. First of all, when you read true descriptions of angels in the Bible, angel just simply means messenger. That's what it means. So again, um modern art and you know mid-century art has done a complete disservice of what an angel actually is. Nowhere in the Bible do you see a description of like uh, you know, very soft women and effeminate men dressed in white flowing robes with doves' wings playing harps. You just don't see this. These messengers of God were warriors, and every single time they show up from heaven to earth, then there is an unbelievable amount of fear and intimidation. Not only that, like I said yesterday, the shepherds were often doing very shady things. And so maybe if God's messenger showed up in the field while you've been hanging out with your boys for a few weeks and God showed up, you think, oh no, we're busted. I mean, I don't know about you, but like when I was in the fourth grade, fifth grade, if they came over to the intercom during school and said, Please send Joby Martin to the office, my first thought was never, ooh, I probably won a prize. No, no, no, no. My first thought was, oh no, they found out. And then the angel, the messenger of God, says to the shepherds, fear not. The most commanded thing in the Bible is this is to fear not, don't be afraid. The King James Version of the Bible has at least 366 commands to not be afraid, to be strong and courageous, to be anxious for nothing, not to worry. Why? Because I don't know about you, but every day of my life, including leap year, I need to hear those words. You see, because the opposite of faith is not doubt, the opposite of faith is fear. And I think the reason this is, is because fear paralyzes and faith produces action. One of our new pastors here at the Church of 1122, he has this line, he says, Real faith has feet. That's right. If your faith does not produce action, then you just have ideas. And what fear does is fear paralyzes us so that we can't move forward. Faith produces in us courage even in the face of danger, even in the face of some scary circumstances. It's okay to be scared. Scared is a feeling, that's fine. But when you're scared and you move forward by faith, that's called courage, and we need more men to have more courage in the church. You see, Paul tells Timothy this that fear is not a feeling, fear is a spirit. He says, God has not given you a spirit of fear. But what God has given you is a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline or sound mind. You see, the difference between faith and fear is this. You see, when you look into the future, who do you think is in control? If you look into the future and you think that it's up to you, you think your circumstances are in charge, then you will be gripped by fear and there's nothing you can even do about that future. But when you look into the future and you believe that God still has the whole world in his hand, then and only then will you be able to walk by faith. Let me ask you a question. Right now, are you driven by faith or fear? Is there something that God has told you to do, but you have been too afraid? You have been paralyzed by analyzing the situation, and you know that you know that you know that God has called you to step out in faith. God's word through Christmas from the angels to us is this fear not. Fear not. May you be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. May you know that perfect love drives out fear, and God has already demonstrated his perfect love for us in this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. And also that when God deposited the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, on the inside of every single believer, then where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom, not fear, not being frozen in what might happen, but having this undeniable, unbelievable, unstoppable trust that you are following in the footsteps of the Almighty God. Listen, the Bible says that his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That means if it's God's will, it's God's bill. And so you, by faith, step out in obedience to whatever it is that God has called you to, and you trust him with the outcome. Amen.

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