Joe Mueller: Go to Proverbs, the book of Proverbs, chapter 29.

Proverbs 29.

Hope you're enjoying the competition, the camaraderie, one with another.

and I told somebody at lunch, sitting at one of the sponsors' table, and I said, this is not the place you come if you want to have an in-depth conversation.

And I meant the lunchroom because it is so loud in there.

You guys are just crazy.

But you know how to be quiet in here, so I guess that works out alright.

I want to look at a truth that really is I trust maybe you even see how the first message we had this morning connected to the next message that Brother Daniel preached, and I want to preach another message that's going to really connect and follow up on what he preached here today that I believe, I trust will be a help for you today.

That's been an important truth in my own life.

You know, we live in a world where people have all sorts of crazy and unreasonable fears.

We call these things phobias, right?

And we, of course, know about things like claustrophobia.

That's the fear of confined places.

Some people have hydrophobia, the fear of water.

Some of you here no doubt have niclophobia, the fear of darkness.

How many of you are afraid of the dark?

All right.

Yeah, there's a few people that are honest enough to say it, okay.

And I wonder, though, perhaps there's somebody here like this, that you have arachibutterophobia.

That's the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.

This is real.

I didn't make this up.

Some people have that fear.

In our world today, there are some people that definitely have nomophobia, which is the fear of being without your mobile phone.

Some of you have acrophobia, the fear of high places.

Arithmophobia, fear of numbers.

Plutophobia, the fear of money or wealth.

maybe we should have that how about this one, xanthophobia the fear of the color yellow

and you're surrounded by yellow, I don't know what we're going to do somebody please monitor the situation carefully

I'm sure there's some junior hires in the room maybe some people a little older than that that have oblutophobia fear of bathing

we will smell that tomorrow no doubt globophobia fear of balloons how about this one

hippopotamonstrosa quipedelia phobia that's the fear of long words

again I didn't make these up these are like real things you look it up they're there

some of you I don't know there's some people apparently they have pogonophobia, which is the fear of beards.

Ergophobia, the fear of work.

Decidophobia, fear of making decisions.

Mysophobia, the fear of dirt.

Taxophobia, the fear of being buried alive.

All right, that one's a popular one, apparently.

Xenophobia, the fear of strangers.

Or triscadecophobia, fear of the number 13.

Or the king of all phobias, phobophobia.

The fear of phobias.

You know, we can laugh about these things because they are so ridiculous in so many ways, right?

And boy, people are full of fear, anxiety, that leads to depression and so many other things.

It's a very real thing in the world that we live in.

But, you know, there's some of these fears we think, man, that is just off the wall, ridiculous, unreasonable to be afraid of such things.

But, you know, there's another fear that doesn't seem so unreasonable to us.

And it doesn't seem quite so ridiculous.

And that's a fear that we find here in our text.

Proverbs 29 and verse number 25.

It says, The fear of man bringeth a snare.

But whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

The fear of man.

Another word that we sometimes use for this fear of man is the word insecurity.

We sometimes say, oh, that person's really insecure.

It's another term for fear of man.

Now, the word that's used here for fear when it speaks of the fear of man is a very strong word.

At the root of it, it has the idea of to tremble, to shake.

So we're not talking about a healthy fear.

There's some things that, okay, it's healthy to have a decent fear of, but this is not a healthy fear.

This is a paralyzing, immobilizing fear, a fear that holds you back when you should be moving forward.

And last night, Brother Bosler laid out this theme for our time together this year of being a living sacrifice, of total surrender.

And I believe that one of the reasons that we often hold back from that total surrender, from saying, I want to be a living sacrifice, is because of this issue of fear.

Particularly the fear of man.

And I'll be honest, this is an area where God has had to do a deep work in this preacher's life.

About the fear of man.

And I am sure that there still needs to be an even deeper work that God does in my heart about that matter.

You see, living based on the opinions of other people can grip your soul and hold you back from taking the risky steps of faith that God has for you.

And I burden for you, young people, that now at this age, as a young person, you would learn how to live free of this trap, of this snare of the fear of man.

Here in this text, we find the simple truth that the fear of man loses its power when you take confidence in your God.

I want us to think about this matter of the fear of man.

I want you to first understand the danger of the fear of man.

And to do this, we need to notice the contrast that's made here in this text.

It says, the fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

Oh, well, here's a contrast, a snare, a trap, and being safe.

Now, that word safe will begin there literally means to be elevated, to be set on high.

It gives us the picture of protection, of being high above any danger, out of reach of anything that would desire to bring harm.

Proverbs 14, 26 says, In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge.

Friends, that's what we need.

This place of refuge, we need to be safe, set on high.

Perhaps the picture that the writer of Proverbs here is trying to give us is the picture of a bird that is flying high above the treetops, into the clouds, doing exactly what a bird was designed to do, right?

To fly high.

I've always loved bald eagles.

It was kind of just from the time I was a young boy, been a fascination.

My bedroom was decorated with bald eagles when I was a kid.

And so it was just something I love.

They're so magnificent, so regal, so proud, so strong, that they can soar so high and dive so fast.

I mean, it's just awesome.

And quite a few years ago now, shortly after I was married, I was kayaking with some others up north here in northern Wisconsin on the Pelican River, And we were kayaking and came around the bend.

And as we did, the guy who was leading our group kayaking, he pointed towards the tree.

And there we could see up in the tree was a bald eagle sitting there.

And it was so awesome, just right there.

And as we came a little closer, he took off and he flew out of that tree, kind of swooped down over the water and went off around the next bend.

And I thought, man, that is so cool.

I mean, that's awesome.

This is like dream come true for this guy.

Okay, so it was so cool.

So we go around the bend, and there he was sitting on the branch again.

And we did the same thing.

We got a little closer, and he swooped down low over the water and disappeared around the next bend of the river.

And so we're going around, and a few minutes later, as we come around another bend, there he is again.

He's sitting on that branch.

And so we get a little closer this time, and then he takes off, and he goes down over, you know, swoops down around the next bend, but then we see him circle around, and he flies right over the top of us.

I mean, it was awesome.

It was beautiful, majestic.

There's something about seeing a bird like that in the wild, the power and the freedom, the majesty.

You see, that eagle took off flying because he knows if I fly high, I don't have to fear the trapper.

I don't have to be worried about that.

If I need safety, fly high.

That's what a bird is made to do.

That's the defense mechanism that God has given to that bird.

In contrast here to that being high, being safe, we find the word snare.

Now, a snare is the picture of a trap.

And this word picture that's used here is specifically a trap that would be set to capture a bird, to bring that bird into captivity.

So it's no longer free.

That's the goal of a snare, of a trap.

It's to bring you to a place where you're no longer free.

You're no longer able to do and be what God intended for you to do so that you're living in captivity.

Now, by definition, a snare is deceptive.

It wouldn't be effective without some sort of trickery that lures the prey in.

Now, with my fascination with bald eagles, as a young boy, I grew up reading this book that described the process by which a bald eagle was captured live in the wild.

And the eagle wakes up one morning and it sees there on a beach area by this lake that it lives by, there's this fish just laying there out in the open on the beach.

Dead fish just waiting.

And the eagle sees this, and now eagles are very perceptive.

Their eyesight is incredible.

And so no doubt, of course, the eagle is very cautious and just wondering, hey, what's this about?

And so he says he doesn't go to that fish, even though it's free food just sitting right there.

He doesn't go and get that fish.

He just waits for hours and hours looking, but nothing happens.

It's still sitting there.

And so finally, he cautiously approaches and takes the fish, and nothing happens.

It's fine.

And so he, well, there you go.

He got a free meal out of it.

The next day, when light comes again, there's another fish laying in the same spot.

and this time the eagle didn't wait quite so long.

I mean, it waited.

This made him nervous.

It waited, but not so long, and so finally he went and got another free meal.

The next day, the same, and each day it grew less and less of the hesitancy until he would wake up in the morning and the fish was there and he'd go get the fish.

Well, one day the fish was laying there, but then there was something else there as well.

This big stick thing sticking up out of the ground, and And that set that eagle on edge.

And so he didn't go grab the fish that day.

But the next day the fish was still there, and so he went and got the fish.

And then the next day the fish was there, and he got to this place where now he was so comfortable.

He would take this and sit up on this big rock there with this stick that's there, and he would consume the fish right there, day after day, as the trapper, who was setting all of this up, patiently waited.

to spring the trap.

Until one day, there's some other apparatus there now that's been added.

There's a man hiding in the bushes, but the eagle doesn't even notice that he's gotten so comfortable, he's gotten so desensitized to what's going on, that he comes, sweeps down, grabs the fish, and sits up there, and then, boom, the net drops.

And now this regal, majestic bird that was made to fly high to live free, to display awesome majesty, was trapped, brought into captivity.

It was no longer going to fly high.

The rest of its life, it was destined to live in confinement.

Listen, that's not what a bird's supposed to be doing.

It wasn't made to live in a cage.

I mean, it's cool to be able to go to a zoo and see a bald eagle sitting there and you can get up a lot closer but i'm going to tell you it doesn't have the same majesty and aura of when that bird can lift off and fly it's not what a bird was designed to do

instead of flying high and free it's now confined to captivity can i tell you friends insecurity that this fear of man brings you low.

It takes you captive.

You become prisoner to the approval and opinions of other people.

You're in bondage to the dictates and whims of fickle friends and flawed men.

You're supposed to be flying high, doing what God has made you to do, being what God has made you to be.

His plan for you is to live free and out of reach of the torment of this one who wants you to live as a captive.

Listen, friends, God made you for a purpose.

He wants you to know the joy of walking with him.

He wants you to know him, to fellowship him with him, to serve him, to share him with others.

God wants to use you.

You hear that all the time here at Thee Generation.

God wants to use you to make a difference.

but when your life decisions are dictated by the opinions of those around you you can't be what god called you to do and be what god made you to be because you're a captive to the fear of man and so if you don't purposely deal with this issue of the fear of man you will walk through your life shackled yes wanting to serve jesus yes wanting to make a difference yes wanting to do something for God, but you're hemmed in by the prison walls of

the opinions of other people.

The fear of man brings a snare.

And listen, the irony of this trap of the fear of man is that when you make decisions based on the response of those around you, you feel like you're protecting yourself.

You're protecting your image.

You're protecting your future.

You're protecting what people think about you.

You're protecting yourself.

That's what you feel like you're doing, but you're actually doing just the opposite.

You're destroying your future.

You've been trapped in a snare that is holding you captive.

Do you see the danger of the fear of man?

God designed you to live safe, free, high, doing what God has made you to do.

But if you fall for this trap, this snare, you're captive.

And none of that can be realized.

I want you to now recognize the subtlety of the fear of man.

We've seen the danger.

Now recognize the subtlety.

I love this definition of insecurity or the fear of man from Del Fessenfeld.

It's so helpful.

He said this, Insecurity or the fear of man is placing my confidence or trust in people or things that can be taken away from me.

Placing your confidence or trust in people or things that can be taken away from you.

Listen, young person, if you're looking for acceptance, for your value from the people around you, then you're going to filter every decision of life through that metric.

Because your life is wrapped up in what this certain subset of people think of you.

And the problem is, that certain subset of people, what they think changes all the time.

And then you end up, you're not in that subset anymore, now you're in this subset, And so now you have to make all your decisions based on what this subset thinks of you.

And it maybe isn't the same thing as what this one did.

You're looking for your confidence.

You're finding your confidence, your acceptance, your value in what do these people here think about me?

And you fall into a trap.

The trap of the fear of man.

Now, as we think about this matter, I want you to ask, what does this actually look like practically in my life?

right what does the fear of man look like and and i believe that the fear of man has two faces two ways that it can manifest itself in your life the first one is this that the fear of man hinders you from doing what is right and we've heard some preaching already about that but this is when a person doesn't do what they know god wants them to do because they're afraid of what people will think of them.

It keeps you from doing what's right.

Some of you here today, you know exactly what God's telling you to do.

Even as the last message preached, God was, he was all over you.

You know he wants you to get right about an area of sin in your life.

You know that you need to be open with your parents about things you've been hiding behind their back.

You know that he wants you to stop blending in with the lost people in your workplace or in your school and to take a stand for Jesus, maybe in your youth group.

You know that's what God wants you to do.

He's telling make some changes when you go back home.

Maybe you know that God is calling you to be a missionary or a preacher or some sort of Christian worker, and you know exactly what God is telling you to do.

But you've decided you aren't going to do it because you're afraid, afraid of what people will think of you.

In other words, you care more about the opinions of people than you do the opinion of God.

The fear of man will keep you from doing what is right.

A few years ago, psychologist Ruth Berenda and her associates, they carried out an interesting experiment with some teenagers, and they got a group of teenagers, you know, from different walks of life, different backgrounds, and this was their plan.

It was simple.

They were going to take groups of 10 teenagers at a time and bring them into a room where there was a teacher, and each group of 10 was instructed to raise their hand when the teacher pointed to the longest line on the screen or on the board.

And so they had a series of slides they would work through in these charts, and so that was what they would do.

The teacher would point at a line, and if it was the longest one, then they were supposed to raise their hand.

That was the instructions they were given.

Now, the one thing that one of the people in the group didn't know is that the nine other people in the group had been instructed ahead of time that they were to raise their hand when the second longest line was pointed to.

So there was one guy who didn't know that that was the drill.

The other nine knew.

No matter what the teacher says, raise your hand when the second longest line instead of the longest line.

Are you getting the picture here?

So they come in, and the teacher gives the instructions.

There's ten of them sitting there.

And they say, okay, here's the instructions.

I want you to raise your hand when I point to the longest line.

So the teacher points to this line, points to the second longest line, and the whole group's hands go up.

Except for the one guy.

And the other guy kind of looks around, nine people raising, and he's not, and he knows that's not the longest line.

He can see it clearly, but he shrugs his shoulders and puts his hand up too.

Even though he knows it's the second longest line, not the longest line.

This was done with group after group after group.

and it was found that time after time, the now self-conscious teenagers they're seeing, everyone else is doing something different, they would say that the shorter line was longer than the long line, even though they knew it wasn't true.

75% of the time, they would raise their hand with the rest of the group

instead of raising their hand when it was the longest line, point to that.

and we can look at that and think boy that's that's ridiculous that's crazy yeah a silly experiment

but boy doesn't illustrate this point that the fear of man brings a snare

and don't we do the same thing all the time

only we do it in real life not in some some test experiment in the classroom we do things that we know we shouldn't do or we don't do things that we know that we should do simply because the people around us aren't doing it or simply because the people around us don't like it can i challenge you young person don't let the opinions of other people determine the future of your life i'll be honest a room this size there could be someone here this afternoon

and you know that you're not saved you look good you you've played the part perhaps but you know you're a fake you know that that you've never trusted jesus to wash your sins away and give you eternal life you know that that that god has just been all over you and if you died tonight, you would drop straight into hell.

You know it.

And God is convicting you, and again and again you keep hearing God saying, you need to get saved.

You need to trust Christ.

And you've been saying, no, no, no, no.

I won't.

Because you're afraid of what people will think of you.

You'll be afraid of people, what are they going to say when they found out that I've been faking it this whole time?

Can I just plead with you, friend, if that's you, and again, I don't know the condition of your heart here today, if that's you, don't let the opinions of other people determine the eternal destiny of your soul.

That's right.

Some of you, you know that you have hidden sin that needs to be confessed, that you need to get right with God.

You know it.

It's been a secret.

You've covered it up.

Nobody else knows about it.

They don't know about that relationship you have with that guy.

Nobody knows about the music that you listen to when no one else is around.

They don't know about the words that you say when you're with that certain group of friends.

But God knows.

And God's been dealing with you.

His conviction is heavy upon you.

He's pleading with you.

He's calling you in his love.

He's inviting you to freedom and joy.

But you're afraid.

Afraid that people will think that you're an awful sinner.

Afraid of the hurt it will cause your parents.

Afraid of the mocking you might get from those that you've been indulging in this sin alongside of.

And so you say, no, no, no, no.

I won't get right with God.

Because you fear man.

You're trapped.

Well, listen, friends, don't let the opinions of those around you determine the freedom of your future.

The fear of man, it will hinder you from doing what is right.

Absolutely.

But there's another face to the fear of man as well that I think we need to consider.

And that is that the fear of man can motivate you to do what is right.

The fear of man can motivate you to do right.

Now let me explain this.

This is when a person does right things, things that even they should do, but they do them because they want to please or impress people around them.

pastors parents teachers youth group leaders

listen i get that that many probably most of you have lived your entire life surrounded by good wholesome even spiritual things you have parents who love the lord your role models have been have been good people the activities that have been available to you that that you've been able participate in have had some amount of spiritual or at least moral value to them.

And so perhaps without even realizing it, you've made decisions and embraced a lifestyle.

You've pursued after goals.

You've held to a certain set of standards and ideals, not so much because you're concerned about being biblical as it is because you want to be accepted.

You want to be seen as part of a spiritual group.

You want to be known as a good kid.

And so, yeah, you do these things you should do, but for the wrong reasons.

You do devotions every day, memorize verses, dress right, talk right, go soul winning, serve.

Not because you love Jesus, but because you love and desire the approval and admiration and applause of those around you.

You're serving Jesus, quote unquote, but you really aren't serving Jesus at all.

You're living for the praise of men.

You care more about the opinions of other people than you do about the opinion of God.

This too is the fear of man.

And Paul was very strong about this in Galatians chapter 1, when he said, For do I now persuade men, or God, do I seek to please men?

He says, For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

Paul was dogmatic, saying, listen, you cannot be a man-pleaser and a God-pleaser at the same time.

Jesus was just as dogmatic about it.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 6, he says,

A little bit later, he says, Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance.

For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.

Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.

Listen, you can live to impress people with your spirituality, with your servant's heart, but if that's why you're doing it, you have your reward.

Don't expect to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant from the Lord Jesus for that.

You already got your reward in this life.

There's no reward later for you.

You're living for the praise of men.

Can I just ask you here today, young person, A young person who does right, why?

Why?

Why?

If no one ever knew about it, would you still read your Bible every day?

If someone wasn't keeping track about it, if there wasn't a Sunday school teacher or a youth leader encouraging you to do it, would you still go out soulening?

If you were in a city all alone and there was no chance of anyone finding out what you did or didn't do, would you still wear what you wear?

Would you still listen to what you listen to?

Would you still be careful about the things that you watched?

Who are you actually living for?

See, all those things are good things, right things.

They're things we should be doing.

God desires us to do those things.

but when we're doing them for the wrong reason, to impress people, to look spiritual to those around us, to please those who are an authority in our life, instead of out of a heart of love for Jesus and his word and a desire to follow him, you too are living in the fear of man.

You too are trapped, held captive by this fear of man.

The fear of man, it will hinder you from doing right, but it can motivate you to do right too.

And when it's the fear of man motivating you to do right, it's not as right as you think it is.

I know it seems at face value that the second one of those is better than the first one.

I understand that.

But in reality, both are a problem.

Both are dangerous.

Both are a trap because both will hinder you from actually knowing God, From being what God made you to be and doing what God made you to do?

I want to ask you here, do you see the subtlety of the fear of man?

Are you trapped by the opinions of other people?

Do they keep you from doing what you should do?

Or do they motivate you to do those things?

we've seen the danger it's a trap it holds you captive we've seen the the subtlety

but I want us to finish here by seeing that we need to embrace the answer for the fear of man you see I realize that this is a very real

issue that we all face.

I do.

Boy, we're surrounded by people, right?

None of you live in a bubble, isolated.

We don't have any monks here who live in a monastery and don't see anyone else.

You're surrounded by people.

And it's so easy for all of us to get sucked into this fear of man.

And so we've got to say, what is the answer?

It's the propensity of our human nature to care about what do they think about me?

What do they think about me?

What's running through their mind right now?

It's our human nature.

So what is the answer?

Well, the Word of God is so clear.

It says, the fear of man bringeth a snare.

but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

Now, friends, honestly, this is one of those verses, I don't know if you ever read verses sometimes, and it doesn't say what I think it should say, or at least what my natural thought would be.

I mean, when I read this, okay, it says, you know, the fear of man brings a snare, and to me, if I was writing this, it would make sense to say, the fear of man brings a snare, but the fear of God will make you safe.

I mean, doesn't that seem like the natural antidote, the fear of man?

No, we shouldn't fear man, we should fear God.

That seems natural to me, but that's not what it says.

It doesn't say that fearing God will make you safe.

That's not what it says at all.

It says that the opposite response of fearing man is trusting God.

Now, I understand, and I think there's a lot of overlap in the concepts of fearing the Lord and trusting the Lord.

I think that they're closely related.

But nonetheless, the emphasis of the text here is on trust in the Lord.

The phrase, trust in the Lord here, means to make God your confidence.

To rest in him, to find your security, your identity, your acceptance in him and him alone.

So if insecurity or the fear of man is placing your confidence and trust in people and things that can be taken away from you, and that's a trap, it holds you captive, it puts you in bondage, then what you and I need to do if we want to live free, if we want to be safe, if we want to live out the life that God intended for us to live, We need to place our confidence, place our trust in something or someone that cannot be

taken away from us.

And there's only one answer for that.

God himself.

Place your confidence in him.

Listen, if you want to live free from the snare of the fear of man, you have to learn to keep your eyes, your heart, fixed in one place.

On your God.

that's where safety comes from as one author said faith unbinds the soul from fear

consider these words of psalm 56 as the psalmist says be merciful unto me oh god for man would swallow me up he fighting daily oppresseth me what do you feel the pressure the psalmist is feeling from from people around him

and he says those words you probably could quote what time i am afraid i will trust in thee when that fear rises up in my soul and i am tempted to to tremble to feel paralyzed i'll trust i'll trust in thee in god i will praise his word in god i have put my trust I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

In God have I put my trust.

I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.

Listen, young people, the heathens still rage.

People still mock followers of truth.

This world is still not a friend to those who want to live sold out to Jesus Christ, who are going to be a living sacrifice.

But you don't have to be affected by that.

You don't have to be shaped by that if your confidence is in God and God alone.

You're safe there, secure.

That security in God is found in a settled convincement, confidence, that whatever step God is leading me to take, no matter how risky it may seem no matter what anyone else may have to say about it the step that god is leading me to take is worth it because he's leading me to take it and my confidence is in him in who he is

in his love for me see you have a god who loves you passionately a young person a God who delights in you.

He wants the very best for you, and he is actively at work leading you into a plan that is far beyond the best plan that you could come up with.

And he's given everything that you need to live free of the snare of fear.

He's given you himself.

No matter what valleys you may walk through, he says, you don't have to be afraid.

No matter what pressures you may face, he says, you don't have to fear.

if you'll find your confidence in me, if you'll live with your eyes fixed on me.

Oh, I love the words of 2 Timothy 1, as there Timothy is wrestling in a very real way with this matter of fear, of timidity in the face of pressure, the opinions of others.

And Paul writes to him, he says, listen, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love.

and of a sound mind.

He says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.

Listen, young person, God has not given you the spirit of fear.

I know it feels like it sometimes.

I just feel that burning in your chest, that knot in your stomach.

You feel like, I have to take this step.

I don't think I can.

I'm so afraid.

What are they going to think?

And I tell you, that's not from God.

God has given you something totally different.

He's given you his power.

He's given you his divine love.

And he's given you his way of thinking.

We don't have to be characterized by that fear if we'll put our trust, our confidence in God.

We don't have to fear man.

As Dr.

Jim has said, if you fear man, you do not trust God.

But if you trust God, you will not fear man.

Listen, young person, you don't have to care what the people around you think.

If you're living for the God who delights in you, you're confident in his love for you, and his heart towards you, who cares what your lost co-workers think?

Who cares what your classmates or fellow youth group members think?

So what if they think you're weird?

it doesn't matter he loves you and my confidence is in him if your trust if your confidence is in god you're not looking at those other people it doesn't matter what they say or what they think so as you're confronted with those decisions even as you're here and god is confronting you with maybe a step that you need to take don't don't look around saying, what will these people think if I make the decision to get right with God?

No, no, no, don't look around.

Look up.

Look up and ask yourself the question, what can I trust my God to do as I respond to his voice right now?

Listen, God's looking for some young people today who are willing to say, I don't care what anyone else thinks.

My eyes are on you and you alone, Lord.

I'm putting my trust, I'm putting my confidence in you, Lord, no matter what it costs me with people here on earth.

God is looking for some young men who are willing to say, Lord, I trust you and your heart towards me and your way for me enough to say no to the whims of those around me and yes to your demands.

God's looking for some young women who will say, God, I trust you enough today to place my life, my dreams, my future, my plans, my health, my hurts, my pains, my desires into your hands.

Do with me as you will, God.

My confidence is in you.

Listen, young person, do you want to break free from the shackles of the fear of man?

from the burden of trying to maintain your status in the eyes of the peers and others around you, there is only one answer.

There is only one way to turn.

You have to intentionally choose to trust your God, to actually believe that He is enough, that His opinion is all that matters, that being rightly aligned with Him is far better than any other option that's calling your name.

Confidence in Him.

So I want to ask you here this afternoon, are you trapped?

Are you in bondage to the fear of man?

The opinions of those around you.

Listen, you don't have to stay that way, friend.

you can be freed as you choose to trust in your god and listen it'll be a journey that fear of man has woven itself into the fabric of your thinking the fabric of your heart and the way that you view life it'll be a journey but as you purposely choose to trust in god and find your confidence in Him, you'll find that the prison begins to open.

As you take that step, regardless of what people are going to say, and you respond to God and you obey His voice, no matter what people are telling you, you'll find that the chains begin to fall off.

And you see before you a life that perhaps you never thought was possible, living free from the fear of man.

One commentator said this, the man dependent on the world for happiness is in bondage.

The servant of God is in liberty.

It matters not to him whether the world smile or frown.

He is safe.

beyond its reach, set on high.

Young person, the fear of man loses its power when you take confidence in your God.

Do you need to trust Him today?

Do you need to acknowledge, oh, I'm trapped, God.

I'm trapped.

But you want to set me free.

and God I want to choose today to begin trusting you to find my confidence in you Lord instead of the people that surround me

I don't know what the fear of man looks like in your life you know I know what the fear of man looks like in my life where my heart still is pulled towards this propensity to fear what people think.

It's there that we need to come before God and say, God, I trust you.

I trust you with this.

I trust you enough to embrace your heart for me instead of worrying about the heart of all these other fickle people around.

O young people, the fear of man brings a snare.

But whoso trusteth in the Lord shall be safe.

Let's bow our heads to prayer.