None Shall Make Them Afraid

Well, aloha! Happy Feast! It's wonderful to be here. Such a beautiful feast site. I hope you've all been able to get out and enjoy some of the natural beauty around here. I certainly have, and it's been just, just absolutely wonderful. I don't know what kind of exotic wildlife you've all seen. We've seen a lot, but I have to admit, one of my favorites is the island chicken.

I've almost exhausted every chicken joke in my book. Almost. But there was a local who shared some culinary advice with me this week, actually, about the Hawaiian chicken, the island chicken, because he said they're notoriously tough and gamey. So he said the secret is you have to put it in a crock pot, and then you pour in coconut milk, and you get your spices and your seasonings just right, and then you plop in two lava rocks, and you slow cook that thing all day, all day long. And then, in the evening, when you're ready to eat, you pull out the chicken and you eat the lava rocks.

So I didn't know I'd be getting free culinary advice here at the feast, but it is welcome. Let's see if I can get my slides, my technology, to work here. I, too, have some slides for you today. They seem to be the same thing to do. Now, I've appreciated the slides and the presentations here at the Feast of Tabernacles very much. Plus, slides are like catnip for note-takers, so you're welcome. Brethren, our topic today is a serious one, but it has to do about this theme of no one shall make them afraid. This is such a powerful promise of God's coming kingdom. I think it's worth spending some time on today and just unpacking this a bit. What does it mean? What are the implications? How do you and I apply this today? None shall make them afraid. It is a powerful promise of our Creator God, and it comes from Micah chapter 4. Micah 4 is kind of going to be our anchor scripture today. So turn there with me. Micah chapter 4.

And verse 4 says simply this, "...but everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken." What a powerful promise that is! Something to look forward to so much when this world will at last know lasting peace, and there will be no one to make them afraid. What a contrast with our world today as well. And our world today is, of course, filled with fear. Isn't it, brethren?

It's everywhere. Our headlines scream of danger. Our politics thrive. They thrive on division. Our social media trades in outrage. And the data, the statistics, seem to back that up. There was a recent study that said 43 percent of adults feel more anxious this year than they did last year. One in three college students reported feeling anxious always or most of the time. Think about that. You're sitting at a cafe. You see a group of teenagers or young adults walk in. Let's say there's—let's see, there's 12 of them. According to the data, about four of them would be suffering from long-term anxiety, feeling anxious always or most of the time. You know, it's no wonder in the book of Micah, it addresses this topic of being free from war, freedom from stress, freedom and being free from conflict.

You know, we see that just a verse prior in verse three of Micah chapter four, where it says, he will judge between many peoples. He will rebuke strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not lift up sword against nation neither or neither shall they learn war anymore. It's by no accident that God inspired the prophet Micah to address this topic of our anxiety and our collective fear around war, extremism, violence, terrorism. Another recent study said that over half, 60 percent of our top 10 fears as a country, this is a study conducted in the US, are related to war and warfare. It's crazy. You know, this is the same as Micah's day. It's no wonder, brethren, that part of the kingdom promise that God has granted us this vision of the peace of the millennium to come is freedom from wars and freedom from thinking about wars. So, first, before we go any farther, there's just a couple definitions of what we're talking about here, fear and anxiety. Fear and anxiety are related terms, but they're not exactly the same. So fear, for our purposes, is a response to either a real or a perceived threat, whereas anxiety is future-facing. It's anticipation of a future threat.

And both of these can actually be helpful in small doses, right? The fear response can be helpful because it prepares the body for action, right? You get ready for that fight, flight, or freeze response. It allows us to react quickly to threats that are around us, right? Some of those threats are very real, so we need the fear response. We need a certain amount of anxiety, too, to heighten the senses. What I'm talking about today is when these things turn chronic, when the cycles of the looping of fear, the looping of anxiety, overtakes our hearts and our minds, and it controls us, and it spins out of control. So the problem is that fear controls our society today, doesn't it? Our politicians love fear. Love, love, love fear. Because you think about it, what's more motivating to the average voter to say, I'm going to lower taxes, I'm going to clean up the streets. Or is it more effective to say, if you elect the other guy, say goodbye to your freedoms, right? We hear that kind of stuff all the time. Politicians love fear. And again, it's because fear is much more effective in getting voter turnout or to get people motivated to act than just dwelling on the positive. We also know that our news headlines thrive on fear. You know, there was a meta study done not too long ago that demonstrated that it looked at thousands upon thousands of news articles, and it identified this pattern where news headlines that scream fear are up over 150 percent. So it doesn't just feel worse than it did. It actually quantifiably is. And of course, social media trades in the currency of fear, right? Watch out for this. Stay away from that.

And what this has caused, brethren, as we know, because we live in society, what it's caused is this building sense of unease and increasing stress. I asked ChatGTP to pull out some recent threads from social media. I'm not on much social media, so I asked ChatGTP to do it for me. I asked ChatGTP, hey, go online and find some recent real-life examples from social media feeds of what fear is doing in society. And it pulled out a couple, I thought, interesting examples. One example was this. This individual says, scrolling the news every morning feels like drinking fear with my coffee. I don't even realize how anxious I am until I can't breathe. Have you ever felt that way before? You're reading headlines, or you're doing something online, and you get a shortness of breath because your body is starting to build up anxiety. It's starting to build up tension. Another individual says this. It says, I live in constant fear of something bad happening. Even when things are fine, my brain invents new disasters.

So the problem of fear, brethren, is all around us. But the good news, the good news that we're here celebrating at the Feast of Tabernacles is that God has a solution. God has a solution.

God's promises are real. God, through the prophet Micah, says, everyone shall sit under his vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid. So, brethren, today we're going to explore that promise. We're going to explore that promise and how we today can begin to live fearlessly even now.

So let's look at that kingdom promise. If you're not already in Micah chapter 4, I encourage you to go there and read along with me. We're going to read the first four verses in context. Micah chapter 4 verse 1 says, now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house—we already heard about that earlier in this feast, right? That's the government of God established at Mount Zion, where Jesus Christ is king of kings, Lord of lords, will be ruling over all creation—shall be established on top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion the law shall go forth, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he shall judge between many peoples. In rebukes, strong nations afar off, they shall beat their swords and the plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore, but instead everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it. What a promise God has given! And it's not just here in Micah chapter 4. We see this promise peppered throughout both Old and New Testaments. Another example I have here on the screen is Zephaniah chapter 3, where the context is the remnant returning to Jerusalem, returning to the land of Judah in a time in the future, and they will be blessed with peace. Zephaniah chapter 3 verses 12 and 13. I'm going to read this from the English Standard Version. It says, it says, But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord, those who are left in Israel. They shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. You see the pastoral imagery there? Here the people, which is pictured as a flock, they're not jittery, they're not looking over their shoulder. They're at peace. They're lying down. They're chewing their cud. There is no fear because of the great shepherd that is at watch over them. What a beautiful promise.

So I want to look at three different things that Micah envisions, or what he describes here in Micah chapter 4, that makes this type of kingdom peace possible. Got three different things that make that possible, and then toward the end I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about three applications, three things that hopefully we can take home with us as we think about this concept of no one shall make them afraid. So the first thing that makes Micah's vision stand out is that Jesus, Jesus the Messiah, will be king over all. He will be king over all. Look at Psalm chapter 2. I think we've got time to turn there. Psalm chapter 2. You'll recognize this as one of the enthronement psalms, and we're just going to pick up a few verses here beginning in verse 6. Psalm chapter 2 verse 6 says, yes, this is a declaration from the eternal God, he says, yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. Now that was not only declarative of the Davidic king of the day, this was also prophetic of the ultimate Davidic king to come, Jesus Christ. And then look at verses 8 and 9. He says, ask of me, and I will give you the nation, speaking now to this future Davidic king, he says, ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them, the Septuagint version says, rule them. You shall rule them or break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. New Testament writers, by the way, they pick up on the Septuagint version, particularly John in the book of Revelation. You can just write them in your notes, but Revelation chapter 12 verse 5, for example, and Revelation 19 verse 15 both elude or quote from Psalm chapter 2, what refers to Jesus Christ ruling the nations with a rod of iron.

And that rod, of course, is ultimately the shepherd's rod. It's what the great king will use in his benevolent rule of the nations. And back in to Micah chapter 4, the New Living Translation I have on the screen there, it says, everyone. Well, who's everyone? Well, it's the peoples. It's the nations who gather and who go to Jerusalem to worship the king. Those who seek the law of God, those whose hearts are turned toward God. He says, everyone will live in peace and prosperity, enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees, for there will be nothing to fear, because the Lord of heaven's armies, the Lord of hosts, in other words, has made this promise.

You know, how much does that sound like the great shepherd of John chapter 10? You don't have to turn there, but in John chapter 10 verses 11 and 16, Jesus Christ says this. He says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

And then he gives a foretaste of what's to come. He says, I've got other sheep who are not of this fold. So he gives a hint here that he's speaking about something beyond the diaspora of the Israelite people who are scattered abroad. He's speaking about something beyond the Judeans who would gather for the Feast of Tabernacles and for the Feast of Unleavened Bread during the spring, those pilgrimage feasts. He says, I have other sheep which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. So one of the principles of the keys to living without fear is that Jesus will be king over all. Second principle is that all will be taught by God. All will be taught by God and us. We're not going to focus on that for our purposes today, but you know the verse as well. Isaiah chapter 30, verse 21. You shall hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk you in it. So you and I, as glorified sons and daughters of God, will be a part of that solution as well. But I want to focus on all will be taught by God. Notice again in Micah chapter 2, what we just read, says all the peoples and nations will say they will declare, they will say, He will teach us His ways. And we will walk in His paths, for the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. All will have access to God. All will be able to learn the ways of wisdom, the ways of peace, the ways of justice and righteousness, all of these building blocks that make living without fear possible. I want to turn to your attention to Isaiah chapter 54.

Isaiah chapter 54, speaking of this time to come as well, verse 13 says this, says, all your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.

Something to look forward to so much, brethren. Great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established. You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear.

That's what God says. And you shall be far from oppression, and from terror, for it shall not come near you. So God promises peace and protection, freedom from fear. It's interesting, too, that Jesus Christ alludes to Isaiah 54 in John chapter 6 here. Jesus quotes this about himself and says, when you come to me, Jesus says, when you come to me, heeding the Father's call, heeding the Father's instruction, then you are also being taught by God, listening to Jesus the Messiah.

So that's principle number two, is all will be taught by God. Principle number three that Micah brings out of how to live without fear is that all peoples will inherit the covenant promises. It's fascinating when you look at the covenants of God, you see this language peppered throughout of, you will have freedom from fear. In the divided covenant, for example, it says very plainly, it says, you will have rest from your enemies.

New covenant promises, these are directed to Israel, but for a time still yet in the future, going on into the millennium, this is Ezekiel chapter 34 verses 25 to 31. We're not going to read the whole thing, but I'll pull out a couple quotes for you for you. It says this, in Ezekiel 34 he says, I will make with them a covenant of peace, and they shall be secure in their land. They shall no more be prayed to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. You know, sounds like many of the beautiful millennial prophecies we hear about from Isaiah as well, right? Then he says, they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And here's back to the pastoral language. He says, you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.

And then interestingly, I want to bring your attention to this, this covenant of peace. We also find language from one of the blessing and cursing chapters, Leviticus chapter 26. So there's some fascinating parallels here between Micah chapter 4 and Leviticus 26 that I want to bring to your attention, because Micah chapter 4 doesn't explicitly say, yes, you will, all these peoples and nations will be in covenant with me. But notice the parallels. Notice the parallels. Leviticus chapter 26 verses 5 and 6, okay, versus what we just read in Micah chapter 4 verses 3 and 4. Notice, notice the themes. First of all, notice the fruitful abundance. Leviticus 26 verse 5 says, your threshing shall last from the time of the great parvus and great parvus to the timing of the sowing, and you shall eat your bread to the full. Very similar to the Micah 4, you shall sit each one of you under your vine and under your fig tree language. So it will be fruitful abundance. Also, there's the theme of no more war. Leviticus chapter 26 says, I will give you peace in the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. And notice it also has the theme of no one shall make them afraid. Leviticus 26 verse 5 Leviticus 26 verse 5 says explicitly, he says, I will give peace to the land. You shall lie down. There's that pasture, shepherd, sheep, imagery again. He says, you shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. So how interesting how Micah, under God's inspiration, brings forward these themes and these parallels to the covenant language from Leviticus and applies them to the nations. It says they will to have access to this.

It's fascinating. So to briefly recap our three principles, what will make freedom from fear possible during the millennium? Micah brings out—there's several other things we could of course talk about—but Micah brings out three principles for us. One, Jesus will be king overall. Number two, all will be taught by God. And then thirdly, all peoples will inherit the covenant promises. Now think about those three things, and let's flip it and look at ourselves today in the church. Firstfruits of the people of God. Because we can take these, and we can apply them to ourselves today. Because today, we are in that—well, we could call that an already not yet realism where we can experience these things today under God's rule.

So here's three kingdom principles. We just flip those to overcoming fear today.

And all we have to do is put them in the present tense, right? Jesus is our king. We are under his reign today.

Today, you and I, we are taught by God. We have God's Word. We have—and we can follow the direction of God's Holy Spirit. We have access to the throne of God, where we can get on our knees and we can pray. We can ask for guidance. We can ask for wisdom. And then thirdly, we have the covenant promises.

So, brethren, these three things we have access to today. These are kingdom principles for overcoming fear that you and I today have access to. So how do we put them to use? I want to now turn to three principles of application for how we can take this vision of the kingdom, where none shall make them afraid. And even in the midst of very uncertain and at times fearful times in which you and I live, we can apply these. We can resolve, in other words, to walk in his name. Look, turn please back to Micah chapter four, because I want to... We didn't read verse five yet, and this is an important principle for us. We close with verse four, where it says, no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. This is directly from the mouth of God. He has declared it, he has promised it, and he will fulfill it. But notice what Micah says next in verse five. Micah brings this back to his own day, doesn't he?

Micah brings this back to his day, when, if you know the historical background where when Micah prophesied, this was a time of foreign aggression and internal national turmoil and crippling uncertainty. But look what he says. He says, for all the people, each one will walk in the name of his God. You know, it's a smaller case G, right? These could be demonic powers, they could be wealth, they could be power, they could be self, they could be anything.

Any lowercase G can be something that's more important than we put on a more important plane of priority than the eternal God, right? He says, for all people, walk each in the name of his God. We live in a world where that's very much the case. People are off, they've got their own priorities, they're doing their own things.

But then he says this declarative statement, which I love, it sounds a lot like what we see throughout the Old Testament as well. And it's a declaration of faith. He says, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. So I have three applications for us on how you and I can work on extracting ourselves from the fearful society around us. First, I have a quick qualifier. These are principles, these are guidelines, I believe, can be helpful, but they are not prescriptive, they're not comprehensive, and they're not formulaic.

In other words, I'm not saying if you do these three things, you no longer have to worry about fear at all. And these are not intended, by the way, brethren, to replace help. If you or someone you know is really struggling with chronic fear, chronic anxiety, these three principles, they may help, but they're not a replacement for professional help. You know, I was talking to a friend of mine earlier in the feast, and we were talking about this topic, and I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him, but he put it this way, which I thought was brilliant.

He says, well, if your plumbing's broken, unless you're a professional plumber, you go hire a professional to fix it. If your car breaks down, unless you're a professional mechanic, what do you do? You go hire a mechanic. You don't just pray harder or ask for more faith that God would somehow miraculously inspire you with the principles of sound auto-mechanics or of plumbing codes, right? Likewise, if you or someone you are close to struggle with chronic fear and or anxiety, seek out professional help. Don't feel like you're somehow inadequate or that you are weak in the faith if you need help or assistance.

So with that, let's turn to these three principles. These are things that I think we can all apply. Number one is don't let down your guard or guard your heart and mind. Can't emphasize this enough. Guard your heart and mind. Proverbs chapter 4. Proverbs chapter 4 verses 23 through 27. I like how the New Living Translation puts it. He says, guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Avoid all perverse talk. Stay away from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead. Fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet. Stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked. So easy to do today, brethren. With all the technology, with all the conveniences, with all of the commotion and chaos that is around us, it's really easy to get sidetracked, isn't it? Keep your feet from following evil is the instruction of the Proverbs.

Because fear often enters when? When we let our guard down. When we allow those unchecked desires or impulses or distractions to enter in. So think of your mind as like this impressive-looking guard here. You know, it's a sentry soldier that should be on the job all the time. Filtering, pushing out, preventing access. That is the job or the role that God has given us to do, is to guard our hearts and minds. I have three different practical suggestions here moving from specific to more broad.

So think of these as like three concentric circles. The first is simply this. Filter the news. Oh boy, the news is really bad today, isn't it? And I can speak to this because I am a recovering radio talk junkie. Yes, I'm following the 12-step program. I am on my way out.

No, seriously, years ago, I used to listen to a lot of talk radio. I'm dating myself a little bit because now it's all podcasts, right? But I used to listen to a lot of talk radio and I'd turn the dial on and I'd listen to like an hour or two. This is when I traveled a lot for work. So I had a lot of car time.

And over time, I realized that it was having a negative effect on me. And so I weaned myself off and I cut off almost all of that from my life because it was not taking me in a healthy direction.

You know, we can make these... we can justify a lot of news, being a news junkie, by saying, well, I want to stay caught up with the news. I don't want to miss what's going on. Well, that's fine and good. But keep this in mind that the news doesn't just inform. Over time, it does form us as well. It really does. So if we habitually watch, read, or scroll sensationalized fear-laced posts from partisan performers, name-calling no-goods, and divisive doomsayers, we're in fact absorbing that worldview into our Christian walk. And we're in danger of, over time, becoming more fearful and polarized ourselves. I put Proverbs 18 verse 17 on here because this is a memory scripture for us. We don't even have to turn there. The first part says, the first part says, the first one to plead, his cause seems right until, what?

Until the other comes and examines him.

So this is a scriptural lesson for us. You know, get out of the ruts. Read more broadly. Read more diversely if you can. So that's just a simple, practical way that we can apply this principle of guarding our hearts and minds. You know, stay away from the fear-bating, in other words. Another way is that we can, I caution us all to avoid mindless media use. Henry David Thoreau, the great poet, philosopher, and thinker, put it this way. He says, the mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things.

How true. How true that is. The mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things. You know, we've all been there, right? You get stuck in the doom-scrolling. We get stuck in the continual, what's next, and it's one thing to another, and before long, it's like, whoa, three or four hours have passed. We've all been there, right? But this is part of guarding our hearts and minds. It's, in other words, being more intentional in our media use. Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 and 2. I'm going to read this from the message because it, I like the the punchiness of this paraphrase translation. Colossians 3 verse 1 in the message Bible says, so if you're serious about living this new resurrection life in Christ, act like it.

It's like, oh, okay. Pursue those things over which Christ presides. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth. How often have we heard that Scripture? It's the application of it that gets difficult, right? But this is part of guarding our hearts and minds. All right, third concentric circle is simply this. This is the big one. This is all-encompassing, which is bringing every thought into captivity. Bringing every thought into captivity. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 4 and 5 says exactly that. Bring every thought into captivity.

There's a recent book that was just published called, Tame Your Thoughts. It's by Max Licado, and he puts it this way. He says, we are to, as Christians, to practice picky thinking. And the way he put it was interesting. He says, you know, we don't have to...we don't have to...oh, he put it this way. He says, just because you have a thought doesn't mean you have to think it. Just because you have a thought doesn't mean you have to think it. In other words, you and I are a lot like cows in that we ruminate.

Right? We think about things. We bring up stuff from the mental closet, and then we chew it over, and we chew it over some more, and then we put it back, and then we bring out something else, and we chew it over, and we think about it. We ruminate. And the thought here, brethren, is that we are to help take control of that thought progression.

Another thing that was mentioned in the book, what I thought was interesting, is this concept of identifying UFOs. UFOs, which stands for an untruth that grows into a false narrative that then leads to an overreaction. For example, you could say to yourself, you mess up, and you say, I'm so stupid. Why did I do that?

But if that thought then grows into a false narrative that says, I mess up everything. See the transition? We went from just a simple mental, why did you do that, dummy, to, I just can't do anything right. Everything I touch messes up. And then that, in turn, can lead to a false narrative, which says, you know what? I'm never going to try anything new, because if I do, I'll fail, or worse yet, I'll look stupid in front of my friends. See how that thought progression can spin out of control, and it starts with that untruth, right? Satan is the master at this. Satan is the master at UFOs. I mean, think about the garden, for example, in Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, we can turn there briefly. We all know the story, but Satan is so clever. He is so deceitful. You know, we know that Adam and Eve were given a command, right? You shall eat of all the fruit of the garden, anything you want, anything except that one tree, the knowledge of the tree, of the knowledge of good and evil. And Satan starts with a question. He says, has God indeed said, this is the latter part of verse 1, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And then Eve reiterates the instruction. Well, we may eat of everything, but you can't eat of that tree because you shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. You will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open. You'll be like God, knowing good and evil. And so verse 6 is where we see the UFO thought projection, right?

So the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, that it was desirable to make one wise, and she took of its fruit and ate it. You know, think about that. She described a very nice-looking tree, right? It looks nice. It's pleasant to the eyes. It's desirable. Well, what's that got to do with the price of mannae in the wilderness? The instruction was, don't eat of it! And yet Adam and Eve, they allowed this untruth, you shall not surely die, to grow into a false narrative. Oh, maybe it is designed to make us wise. Maybe this is a really nice-looking tree. Maybe it's not so bad after all. And then, of course, led to the ultimate overreaction of all time, which was to actually eat of its fruit.

Second principle, or second application, is of how to live without fear. The idea of fear is, there's a little bit of irony here, is that it involves fearing God.

Fearing God. Fear, in this sense, does not mean fearful of. It's not cowering in God's presence. It's a deep reverence and awe for God. Look at how the Proverbs put this. It says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fear of the Lord, Proverbs 9 verse 10, is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Psalm chapter 34 gives us some very practical advice on how to fear God. Psalm chapter 34.

Psalm 34, beginning in verse 11, says this. It says, Now come, you children, listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

Who is a man who desires life, who loves many days, that he may see good? Is that anybody? Anybody want to live, lug life, see good?

It says, Keep your tongue from evil, your lips from speaking to see. Depart from evil, do good, seek peace, and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those to do evil.

And then it goes on, the righteous cry out, the Lord hears and delivers. In other words, the fear of the Lord is action-oriented. These are things we can practically apply. Proverbs 14, verse 26.

Proverbs 14, verse 26 and 27. I'm going to read this from the net translation. The Bible says, In the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence, and it will be a refuge for his children. The fear of the Lord is like a life-giving fountain to turn people from deadly snares. Applying the fear of the Lord is actually a solution, a remedy to fear.

Application number three, before we conclude. Application number three is to abide in God's perfect love.

First John chapter four.

First John chapter four, verse 18.

Breaking in, it says, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

So we've all got some growing to do, don't we? Who here has perfect love?

Well, John here instructs us to abide in that love. And the principle here, brethren, is not to somehow get this perfect love by sheer effort or willpower, but it is to allow God's perfect love to abide in us.

In other words, God's love is not perfected through our perception of it, or even our experience of it, but through our expression of it.

It is experienced through our expression of God's perfect love.

Finally, first Peter chapter three, verses eight through fifteen, actually quotes from Psalm chapter 34, which we just read, on the practical ways of driving out fear, and it focuses on these things. The verse eight says, Finally, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, affectionate, compassionate, and humble. Practice love. And then it says this.

Let's turn there. First Peter chapter three. Not too far away here.

First Peter chapter three. Let's pick it up in verse 14. It says, But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. And then he quotes and says, Do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. See how this practical advice for overcoming fear is peppered throughout the scriptures. But notice this, verse 15 says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Other translations put it this way. It says, Set Christ apart as Lord. That is, set Christ apart as our master, our teacher. Fear God. And this will help in our constant fight, our battle to overcome. So, brethren, as we conclude, we've taken Micah chapter four, and we've dug a little bit into some of the principles. Principles for why the kingdom will be a time of no one shall make them afraid. The three principles we covered again, and these are put in the present tense for us today, because they do apply for us today, brethren, is that Jesus is our King. We are under His reign, His domain, His rulership today. We are taught by God through His word, guided by His Spirit.

We are in a community, we are in a fellowship, where we can lean on one another. We can grow in wisdom together. We can edify one another, which is a form of being taught by God, because as we apply these principles in our lives, we can then share them. We can demonstrate them. We can show up, as an earlier speaker put it, we can show up for others. And we have the covenant promises. And then our three applications. Brethren, we know it, but I encourage us all to practice with all diligence. Guard. To guard your heart and mind. Guard your heart and mind. Number two, fear God alone. We all have room to grow in this area, growing in the fear of God. And then thirdly, abiding in God's perfect love. Abiding in it, dwelling in it, growing in it. So brethren, as we conclude our journey here, we're going to conclude as we started, which is this principle found in Micah chapter 4. Everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make him afraid. And then notice how verse 5 closes it out and says, for all people will walk in the name of his God. People around us are going to have their own priorities. They're going to be chasing their own dreams, their own goals, their own self-desires. But we've been called to walk in the name of the Lord our God. Brethren, everyone shall sit under his vine and enter his fig tree. None will make them afraid. This is an assurance from God himself. This is his promise. God has spoken it in his word stands. So while fear may shout loudly in our culture, the calming voice of our Lord is stronger. He is our king. He is our shepherd. He is our teacher. We can walk fearlessly in the Lord our God. And then one day soon, one day soon, his promise to all the peoples in all the nations will be a reality when no one shall make them afraid.