Fear Of Disapproval - 1 Samuel 18 Series

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1 Samuel 18:1-7 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2 From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father's house. 3 And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4 Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt. 5 Whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the people, and Saul's officers as well. 6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes. 7 As they danced, they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands."

8 Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. "They have credited David with tens of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?" 9 And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

10 The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand 11 and he hurled it, saying to himself, "I'll pin David to the wall." But David eluded him twice. 12 Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had left Saul. 13 So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns.

14 In everything he did he had great success, because the LORD was with him. 15 When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns.

28 When Saul realized that the LORD was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, 29 Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days. 30 The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success than the rest of Saul's officers, and his name became well known.

Introduction: Fear of Man

I read last week about a teenager who was sitting in the back row of the bleachers at an award ceremony, sweating bullets. He was one of the ones whose name had been considered for one of the awards, and he was scared to death that he would win it. They would call his name, and he would have to walk up there in front of everyone. He was thinking, “What if I trip, or look funny walking up there? Or what if some of the girls see me up there and think I’m a jerk?And what would the other students who were up for the award think of me?How could I ever face them?”And so he just sat there praying – begging God not to let him win.

The time came to announce the name, and the winner was …Rick Wilson – some kid that no one even thought was a candidate for that award. And here is what this guy wrote about how he felt: “You can imagine my reaction. Relief? No way! I felt like a total failure. Now what would people think of me? They knew I was up for the award, and someone else was chosen. What a loser I was.” Life is hard for people who worry about what everyone thinks.

Some sins are recognized even by secular culture as bad things. Even unbelievers know that murder, adultery, rape, lying – should have a stigma attached to them. But today we are going to talk about a sin that is presented in the Bible as particularly wicked, but in our culture it has no scandal or stigma attached to it at all. Even in the Church most people do not think of this sin as being much of a big deal – or even a sin at all. And yet it is one of the biggest problems in the Christian life. The sin I am talking about is the fear of man – caring about man’s opinion more than God’s.

Fear of man is the main reason people compromise the Gospel. Fear of man is the main reason we tell lies. It is the reason we boast. It is the reason you come home from a social outing and lie awake in bed worrying about whether you made a fool of yourself. Fear of man makes you a leach instead of a giver of love. Fear of man causes you to constantly second guess all your decisions because you are concerned about what people think. In some cases fear of man is the reason why people become over-committed. They cannot bear the thought of anyone being disappointed in them and so they never say no to anything. And they end up not carrying out their calling because they are doing 50 other things God never called them to do.