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.
I was speaking to a colleague of mine a few days ago as we were discussing this sermon idea. My colleague is much older than I. She shared a story with me about being raised by her Grand-mother. She recalled one particular day that her grandmother made her scrub the kitchen floor. When she was finished her grand-mother was not pleased with the job and made her mop the floor all over again. She recalled being angry as she mopped the floor again. Her grandmother noted her anger and said to her – “You may be angry with me right now, but one day you will thank me when you get a job cleaning house for someone.” Don’t get me wrong, we were not criticizing her intent, but; how often do we hear words spoken to us that in actually kill our spirit – kill our dreams – kill our aspirations. There are times that we as believers experience certain kinds of fears. There are good fears and there are bad fears. The latter kind come from wrong believing and can open the door to doubt. Doubt will hinder the flow of the gifts that God has given to us.
Israel missed God’s greatest blessings to them: the Promised Land, but most importantly, the life He desired for them as they lived out His will for them. They missed abundant life simply because they were not able to listen to His voice because of the fear they harbored. Because they listened to all the wrong voices because of fear, they spent their lives in the wilderness, eventually dying there, never knowing the real blessings of God. Let’s not be too hard on them because most of us know this kind of fear. We know what it is like to miss out on God’s blessings. Somewhere along the way we listened to the wrong voices in our marriage - voices like pop culture, friends without a biblical worldview, and more. We have listened to those same wrong voices as we have tried to raise our children. Consider just one example in the area of discipline. Go to the magazine stand and you’ll find a 101 ways to discipline a child, and none of them have to do with a rod of correction. Which voice will we heed?
The real fears we must face are the fears like the fear of failing – fear of rejection – fear of criticism – fear of being alone. Do you remember the fear God has already spoken to you about? Get that fear fixed and removed from you mind today. Fear will drag you down and not allow you to rise to the heights God has in store for you. I’m talking about Fear of Heights this morning.
• Fear always has a “BUT.”
• Fear looks for the obstacles
• Fear focuses on the difficulties
• Fear spreads like wildfire
• Fear doesn’t listen to reason
• Fear demoralizes and immobilizes us
• Fear says “if only”
• Fear says “we can’t”
• Fear longs for the comfort of yesterday
• Fear will cause us to act foolishly
• Fear of this sort is offensive to God
Fear is one of our darkest emotions, perhaps the most troubling emotion we experience, but God never intended for us to live or operate that way in our marriages, our jobs, in our other important relationships, nor here in our church. Remember how Caleb responded? He does his best to reason with his group and make the appeal for immediate obedience and rise to the challenge that God had given them. “Let’s go at once! We can conquer it!” “We are well able!” But not only that, when Israel refused, he was torn up about it. He fell to the ground in grief, tore his clothes, appealed to them again and pleaded with them not to rebel against God. Caleb saw the same giants, the same fortified cities, the same powerful enemies that the other spies saw, but his response was absolutely different. In fact, NUMBERS 14:24 tells us that Caleb had a different attitude, or another spirit about him than did the rest of Israel, and what was the result of that different attitude or spirit? “BUT MY SERVANT CALEB, BECAUSE HE HAD ANOTHER SPIRIT WITH HIM AND HATH FOLLOWED ME FULLY, HIM WILL I BRING INTO THE LAND WHEREINTO HE WENT; AND HIS SEED SHALL POSSESS IT.” What is this OTHER SPIRIT he had? He WALKED BY FAITH NOT BY SIGHT.
I am not sure you followed what had happened. Caleb wholly followed the Lord, and the Lord gave to him, or blessed him. That’s significant! And can you imagine what a long 40 years it must have been for him to wander around in the wilderness, knowing that this nation of people who responded in fear had kept him from receiving that gift even sooner? It is apparent to me that Caleb had No Fear of Heights. How is it that when a mob of 2 million says we can’t take the land, 2 men said yes, we can? They were hearing the right voice, without the hindrance of fear. FOR GOD HATH NOT GIVEN US A SPIRIT OF FEAR. The Greek word for fear here is DELIA which means a timidity or a cowardly fear. The cowardly fear or timidity is not from God. This kind of fear will immobilize us and cause us to hide the God given gifts. Every now and then we experience this type of fear. We fear ridicule – criticism – opposition – embarrassment. This kind of fear does not come from God because the Scripture is plain; "God has not given us the spirit of fear..."
The Holy Spirit has promised to infuse a power into the believer’s spirit. However, the infusion of the power does not come until action is taken to step out and use the gift that God has given. He is giving us both the will and the power to do what pleases Him. The infusion of power only comes as we take courage and put into action what the Holy Spirit is directing us to do. It is clear that God gives us the power, the love and a sound mind. Now it is up to us to act and use the energizing power that God is imparting to our spirit. The believer’s obligation is to not let the stirrings pass -. but to be obedient to the quickening in our spirit. God uses these energies and stirrings to direct and guide us. Remember, He has not given us a spirit of fear. He has given us Power – Love – Sound Mind.
The Greek word for power is “DUNAMIS” which means inherent power; power to reproduce itself, which implies the need for constant activity and continuing reproduction. From the word dunamis we get the English word dynamo or dynamics which is the part of mechanics that deal with motion or active operation. Therefore, just as dynamo needs to be in motion to continue to produce power, so we as believers need to put into motion or action the gift that was given to us from God.
We need to understand that God is ultimately in control. God will never be surprised by things that we fear. If and when danger actually does touch our lives, it’s because, for whatever reason, God is allowing it to happen. An author, C.H. Welch, put it this way, "The Lord may not have definitely planned that this should overtake me, but he has most certainly permitted it. Therefore, even though it were an attack of an enemy, by the time it reaches me, it has the Lord’s permission and therefore all is well. He will make it work together with all life’s experiences, for good." We have very real problems out there and God will allow some of those problems to touch our lives and we don’t always know why. There is a mystery to it. Sometimes it is because he is trying to build our faith, so we stand against the problem and claim the deliverance that he is willing to offer. Other times, he allows that evil to shape us and to change us into new people. But in the midst of those fears, we need to remind ourselves that God knows – God Cares – God is With Us – God is in Control. o Jesus reminds us not to have a Fear of Heights and allow Him to Order Our Steps.
In closing we need to firstly understand what it is that God wants us to do. Not what we want to do or what we want to become. We must understand where God is leading us and then have the strength to Rise without a Fear of Heights.
--One day a young man inherited a farm. This man had wanted to have a farm and now was his chance. The man worked very hard doing all the farm chores and tried to do everything right yet things never went right and nothing seemed to go his way. Therefore, one day a he prayed to the Lord and he asked God to show him what he wanted the man to do. The man was lying in his hammock sleeping not long after this when he looked up into the clouds and he saw the clouds form two letters PC. The man went running into the house yelling to his wife I know what God wants me to do. He told me that I need to preach Christ. Therefore, the man sold his farm, got his education, and became a minister. After a while one of the elders of the church came up to him and told him, “ We love you and we know that you are trying to do your best and you work very hard but you just can not preach” Well the man told the elder about the farm experience and the elder, being a farmer himself, asked the man, “Are you sure God did not mean plant corn?"
If we must fear anything at all let us ensure that we Fear the Lord. You see, the fear of God is not the fear motivated by terror, unless perhaps you are not in right relationship with Him. The fear of the Lord is something which continues all through our lives and is that which is far from negative. Instead, it is quite positive. When a person puts the fear of the Lord first, all these other fears we talked about fall by the wayside.
While the fear of God is a costly business, it also provides the greatest possible reward, for it releases you and me from the fear of life and death. When your life is in the hands of God, your life is in the hands of the One who is in charge of both life and death. He is the One who determines the future. He is the One who conquers your present fear and frees you to dynamic living.
