Fear Of Heights

TITLE: FEAR OF HEIGHTS

SCRIPTURE: NUMBER 13:30-31 / II TIMOTHY 1:7

These are interesting texts found in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Granted, it is also a unique blend of scriptures for examination this morning. I want to share with you this morning through the mingling of these texts about the importance of facing our Fears. This is a topic that makes many of us feel uncomfortable, especially from the male perspective. We are taught as males that we have to be tough and have no fears. I stopped by to let you know this morning that we need to face our fears. When we are able to face our fears, it is then that God will be able to move us to where He wants us to go. We understand at a minimum God is moving us higher but unfortunately most of us have a Fear of Heights..

Our text identifies that not only did the people of Israel have some fears in the Old Testament, we find some of the same fears in the New Testament. Let’s not stop there, but we can trace some of the same fears in our day and age. We are reminded in our text that the people of Israel responded to God’s instructions to take Canaan and they approached the assignment with a sense of fear. They found themselves in fear of the Giants – fortified cities – powerful and numerous enemies - but mostly just fear that they did not have what it took to do what God said. Can you just imagine God giving us Marching Orders and we stand frozen because of fear.

It has been argued that we are what we are today because of Fear not because of Faith. The men and women who stood against fear have become heroes and heroines of faith. Statistics have proven that at least 98% of what is feared never happens. Fear is the greatest enemy and thief of many people. All mistakes and fatal blunders are made under the influence of fear. Nothing good has ever been achieved by fear. If you stop fearing and start faith we will rise to the lofty heights that God has ordained for our lives. . If you stop fearing you will act on all our plans and succeed. The reason you have brilliant ideas, plans and desires and fail to act on them is because of the factor of fear. The real tragedy is the fact that Fear is married to and refuses to divorce faith. Let’s talk about Fear of Heights this morning. In one aspect it is not entirely the fault of humankind that we don’t rise to the levels of anticipation. Let me stay here and press my claim - School started last week for many communities around the State of Oklahoma. Next week all schools will be in full swing. Most six year olds can’t wait to go to school on that first school day in August. It’s a sign of coming of age – get to go to school like the big kids. For an alarmingly large number of these children, however, boredom – anxiety – fear of learning quickly set in.

This happens because societies build schools that achieve much less than they promise. A great majority of students grow frustrated because the system generally fails to help children become adults who can think for themselves. Education has always been considered to be a process whereby some essential body of knowledge is transmitted to students. Schools have simply been places where that transmission officially takes place. The development of flexible, inquiring minds has rarely been the primary consideration in the design of educational systems. The system is not inherently bad, yet, it has the tendency to destroy the Drive and Zeal of most of its young people. Just consider the High School drop-out rate across the nation. A John Hopkins University study named 21 Oklahoma Schools among 1700 nationwide as “Drop-Out Factories.”

Consider the most common classroom approach: one teacher standing in front of thirty children trying to get each one to be at the same place at the same time. This approach has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive, but it flies in the face of everything scientists have discovered about children’s natural learning mechanisms, which are primarily experimentation and reflection. In other words, learning by doing. What is the right stuff for one may be the wrong or irrelevant stuff for another. Even in higher learning we are taught to learn and graduate college and go work 30 years for someone else. Even in many of our churches today we spend more time telling congregation to repeat after me that is to ay tell your neighbor to say this or that – play spiritual Simon says rather than challenge the congregation with a Thought Provoking Message. We have years of a designed system teaching us to conform while God is trying to Nugh us to do Great Things for Him.