Fear, A Condition Where God Works

Pastor Ock Soo Park’s Sermon

Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, [even] unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves [of] gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went [to worship] before the one, [even] unto Dan. And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that [is] in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. (1 Kings 12:25~32)

EVEN THOUGH GOD MADE JEROBOAM AS A KING

Jeroboam should have thought this way whenever fear arose from his heart:

“I cannot win over this fear. However, who is the one who made me king? Isn’t it God who made me king? In that case, I will depend upon the Lord.”

If Jeroboam had this heart, then God would have surely worked to make his kingdom solid and would have truly blessed his life. However, Jeroboam was captured by fear and tried to solve his fear by using his human methods.

If you look in the Old Testament in 1 Kings, there is a king named Jeroboam. Saul was the first king of Israel, then David became king, then David’s son Solomon became king. Solomon, who built the temple in Jerusalem, became corrupt right after completing the precious work. He had many wives, and became corrupt by serving the gods of his foreign wives. Therefore, God declared that He would divide the kingdom of Israel.

Afterwards, the prophet Ahijah took hold of a new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. Then he took ten pieces and gave them to Jeroboam. He told Jeroboam, “God has given you ten tribes of Israel to rule over.” That is why after Solomon, his son Rehoboam ruled in the southern part of Israel, and Jeroboam became king in the northern part of Israel.

JEROBOAM THOUGHT THAT HE HAD TO MAKE THE GOLDEN CALVES

If you look in 1 Kings 12:25, after Jeroboam became king, he built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim and dwelt there. A fearful heart formed inside of Jeroboam, he thought, ‘Rehoboam may attack anytime!’ So he began to build cities everywhere, and while he dwelt there, he had the heart to protect himself. Afterwards, fear continually arose in the heart of Jeroboam and gradually fear took over his heart.

A fearful heart arose in Jeroboam: ‘Now the kingdom may return to the house of David. The people will go up to Jerusalem for the Passover and other sacrifices. If they go into the temple, their heart will return to Rehoboam the king of Judah. Then they will kill me and go back up to Rehoboam.’

Jeroboam had thought of many ways, one of which, ‘I must stop the people from going up to the temple of Jerusalem. In order to do so, I must make golden calves for the people to serve instead of God.’ So he made the golden calves. We can see that through his sin, his whole household was doomed to destruction and curse in the Bible.

JESUS WHO IS INSIDE OF US CAN SURELY WIN OVER FEAR

One of Satan’s most powerful weapons is fear, and Satan often fills our hearts with fear. Satan also filled my heart with fear numerous times, and tried to lure me to use those familiar humanly methods to overcome those fears. I was deceived, and there are a few times that I ended up using my own humanly methods to overcome those fears. However, I experienced that I was wrong at each of those times.

We must first remember that fear comes to even people who are inside of God, but in the Bible, it says clearly that God does not give the fearful heart. Therefore, we must not fall into fear, but we must win over it. We ourselves cannot win over it, but Jesus who is inside of us can surely win over fear. That is the reason why when we fear, we should not use our humanly ways to be free from fear, but we must look up to Jesus and win over fear by faith in Jesus.

This is the first gate we must pass through in living spiritual life. When fear comes or problems come, one must consider, ‘Will I solve this by faith in God or through my own methods?’ This is where all decisions are made. Many people use their humanly ways to solve their problems without much thought, but as they continue to use their humanly ways, they become father from God.

In our lifetime, fear comes to everyone. This fear becomes the condition for God to work inside of us. When fear comes, God says to us, “Believe in me and depend on me. Then I will make you to win over fear. I will solve your problems.” It is God who gives us the strength to win over the fear.

THROW OUT THE BARLEY AND COVER IT WITH DIRT…

Recently, a sister gave me a call as she cried.

“Pastor, I need some counseling I met with the sister for a counseling session. This sister had married her husband in order to live for the gospel. However, the opportunity to preach the gospel was rare, and it became difficult. The sister could no longer live this way and had made up her mind to divorce her husband in order to be free from this hardship.

When I looked at the sister, I thought, ‘I should not comfort this sister. If I look through the eyes of Jesus, if the sister relied on Jesus, what kind of problem would this be?’ I spoke softly to the sister: “Sister, if your circumstances were better, instead of the heart to preach the gospel, you would want to go shopping with your children on the weekends, you would want to eat at a nice restaurant, you would want to enjoy yourself with your friends, isn’t this how you would have flowed in the worldly ways? The difficulty you are facing right now, seems to us like a difficulty, however, God is preparing your heart in order to do the work of the gospel.”

I told the sister, “Sister, please think. The barley is inside and thinks that it is safe. One day, the owner comes and throws the barley on the ground. The barley may think, ‘I am being thrown out by my owner.’ Then the owner covers it up with dirt. If the barley could think like a human, ‘The owner has thrown me out and covered me with dirt, so that I’ll never meet the humans again! He’s given me this hardship.’ He would be in despair. However, the owner didn’t really throw out the barley on the ground nor did he cover up the barley with dirt to prevent people from finding the barley. Actually, the owner wanted to make a condition for the barley to take root so that it could produce grain for the people to eat. Right now, “Sister, it seems difficult, but it is really not a difficulty. God is allowing this process to produce you into a true worker for the gospel. What problem is there that cannot be solved inside of the Lord? Please rely on the Lord.”

The sister turned from her heart of wanting to divorce and decided to rely on God. You don’t know how thankful I was when I saw the Lord start to work in her life with power.

THIS IS HOW JEROBOAM SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT . . .

When fear continually arose from Jeroboam’s heart, this is how Jeroboam should have thought, ‘I cannot win over this fear. But who is the one who made me king? Isn’t it God who made me king? Then I must depend on God. God will surely help me.’ If jeroboam had this kind of faith, then God would have surely made his kingdom solid and would have given him a blessed life.

However, jeroboam fell gradually into fear, and could not be free from the fear. So he used his humanly ways to free himself from the fear. This is what he thought, ‘I must stop the people of Israel from going up to land of Judah. I must prevent them from going up to the temple in Jerusalem.’ Jeroboam had this thought so he did not want the people to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover and other sacrifices. He made two golden calves; he set one in Bethel and the other one in Dan. We can see that through this sin, his life was cursed and how he was shamefully doomed to destruction.

GOD WANTS TO HELP US

Satan puts many kinds of fears into the heart of people. He makes us to think of humanly ways to be free from fear instead of relying on God, making us to follow our humanly ways. However, when fear or problems come our way, no matter what it may be, God gives us the strength to overcome them. God has already made a way out for us from the difficulties and fears, and wants us to go out in front of Him. However, we can see many people waver in front of the fear and problems, and eventually use their humanly ways like jeroboam. In the end, they are cursed and doomed to destruction.

Even today, Satan gives fear to the brothers and sisters who are saved. However, God can free us at anytime from those fears. Whatever fear it may be, God, who has the power to overcome, wants us to come out in front of him. When fear or problems come, Satan gives us the thought that God will not help us. However, God truly wants to help us. That is why when we have the faith in God who will overcome He will surely overcome the problem, and we will truly live a blessed life. Sadly, not many people live this kind of life. There are many cases where people who face fear use their humanly ways to solve it and while trying, they fall into sin and darkness.

Jeroboam chose his humanly ways and tried to protect himself by making the golden calves, and because of that he made Israel to collapse and consequently himself. Today, Satan leads us in this way. No matter what kind of fear or problems we may face, it is of no consequence. I believe that if we come out to Jesus, Jesus will solve the problems for us, and we will be able to dwell in joy and live a blessed life.