Be Not Afraid Of Their Faces

Be Not Afraid Of Their Faces

Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-8; 17-19; John 5:19, 30; 7:16

When I reflect on the messages that the Spirit has given me over the last few weeks, I can’t help but wonder what is He preparing us for? We have been told that we are watchmen – meaning that we are supposed to be sounding the alarm to those who are living in sin, but yet are thinking that, because of God’s grace they are saved and going to heaven. As watchmen our jobs are to sound the alarm in hope of saving their soul. Then we were asked the question, “Do we believe God’s word as He does?” The question was raised to help us decide if we are truly willing to act on God’s word – to interpret it and speak it in truth just as it says. Then the Spirit told us to stop trying to obey what the Bible says and start doing what the Bible says. These were three messages that I had time to prepare for, but then the next message – the Spirit just dropped in my spirit on that Sunday morning. In that message the Spirit reminded us to rejoice always in the Lord because we understand our relationship with God because He has us. We do not need to “choose” to worry because everything that we will face in this life we will not face alone. God loves us and He is always with us and all we have to do is lean in and depend on Him. Then last week the Spirit told us how to play on God’s team. He told us that being on God’s team starts with our request and then our learning His playbook – the Bible. The theme that I have realized that runs through all of those messages is our need to be prepared. We need to understand God’s word because the time is now that we need to believe it, act on it and confidently share it with others. And that, New Light, leads into this message this morning titled, “Be Not Afraid of Their Faces.”

Have you ever looked at someone and immediately were afraid of them? Maybe you didn’t know them but something about the way they looked just caused you to experience a moment of fear or hesitation. Now imagine if you were standing before people that you know and see every day to deliver a message that they do not want to hear. Do you think they would be smiling at you? Do you think they would be excited to hear a message calling for them to change how they are living? Or, do you think the statement “If looks could kill” would apply to how they were looking at you? We sometimes change what we are about to say depending on how we believe others will receive it based on how they are looking at us. We anticipate how they will respond and become very uncomfortable, sometimes even to the point of being scared, so we soften and/or tweak our message in an attempt to elicit a more favorable response. This response on our part is a type of filtering that I will talk about later. This example is just one type of fear that we experience when we are gaging how we are going to deliver our message to the individual.

Another type of fear (which is also a form of filtering), that is more in line with the message this morning, pertains to respect versus actual fear. Let me give you an example. When I was working, we often had high level executives visit our meetings from the home office. When these individuals planned their visits, we were instructed as to how we should act, questions that were appropriate or not appropriate to ask and how we should “tone down” how we usually talked when it was just us. The request was not made out of fear per se, but out of respect for the visitors. In other words, we were told to be on our best behavior. So, when we had breaks in the meeting, the executives would walk up and talk to individuals in order to get to know them. It was interesting to watch how some of my team members became so nervous at being in the presence of the executive that they could barely speak a coherent sentence. Those individuals were in such awe of the executives that they were literally speechless. This is the example that I want you to remember as I go into this message about not being afraid of their faces. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter one.

God anointed Jeremiah as one of His prophets before he was born. Let’s read Jeremiah 1:4-5. It says, “(4) Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: (5) ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5) God said that before Jeremiah was even formed in the womb, He knew (approved) him and before he was born God sanctified (which means to consecrate, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be separate, to set apart) and ordained (commissioned) him as a prophet. When God informed Jeremiah of his ministry, Jeremiah was believed to be between the age of a teenager but younger than twenty-five – which was considered a very young man as it related to maturity and the respect given to adults. For this reason Jeremiah did not think he could do the job. Let’s continue reading at verse six. “Then said I: ‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.’” (Jeremiah 1:6) Jeremiah told God that he could not speak to kings and other leaders because of his age. Think about how a teenager would feel walking into the office of the President of the United States to deliver a message to him from God. Can you imagine how in awe he would be just walking into the Oval office? I can imagine this is what Jeremiah was thinking when God told him he would be a prophet to the nations.