Have you ever noticed how fearless kids are? They’ll do things that right-minded adults won’t even consider.
When I was a boy, one of our family traditions was to go to the Canadian National Exhibition. Summer wasn’t summer unless we made our annual pilgrimage to the CNE. This was back in the days before there was a Canada’s Wonderland and the Ex was the only game in town.
Every year the necessary traditions had to be observed. We had to have some cotton candy. We had to have lunch in the food building. We had to visit the horse building and play some of the midway games and try and win something some cheap prize before we went broke.
But, all of these activities were only the precursor to the REAL reason we went to the Ex, which was to go on the rides. The rides WERE the exhibition as far as I was concerned.
I remember when I finally was tall enough to go on the Flyer for the first time! For those of you who haven’t been to the Ex prior to 1991, the Flyer was the wooden roller coaster build in 1953. It was a wooden monstrosity that creaked and groaned and always made you wonder if they had remembered to do the safety check.
Now, in order to get on the Flyer, you had to stand beside a wooden boy who was 48 inches tall, and be at least as tall as he was. Every year I would stand beside that boy only to be mocked and rejected for yet another year. Then, when, I finally made it, I couldn’t believe it, I was about to become a man!
I got in the line with my brother and inched my way to the front. As I sat down on the seat and felt that steel bar click into place, years of anticipation coursed through my veins. Then, slowly, persistently, with jerky progression, we made our way up the first and highest hill. It seemed like it took ten minutes to get up all the way up to the top. Then all at once, time stopped as the chain that dragged the train up the hill let go and gravity hadn’t quite kicked in. At that moment I felt like a king overlooked my vast kingdom. To the south was Lake Ontario, to the north the rest of the midway, to the west, Exhibition stadium, to the east, the majestic Angels of Prince’s Gates.
Then, the moment of truth forcefully presented itself and gravity did it’s best to rearrange our lunches. Down, around and up we went, slamming from one side of the seat to the other. Everyone around us were screaming so loud that it almost drowned out the sound of the train as it clanked, scraped,
and slammed its’ way along the track.
By the time we hit the top of the third hill the train was careening so fast that we were literally lifted out of the seat! It was only my white knuckled hands and the bar across my legs, that held me in the train. Instantly I understood the height restriction and I was thankful to be spared from the terror all those years.
As the car finally came to a stop, my hands hurt from holding on so tight, and my eyes had momentarily forgotten how to blink. Then with all the strength I could muster, I asked my brother, “Can we do it again?”
The Flyer was demolished in 1991, no longer is there a wooden roller coaster at the CNE. Now you might think that I am saddened by this, but the fact of the matter is that even if the Flyer were still at the CNE I wouldn’t go on it. Why? Well I could say it’s because I know better. I know how old the coaster would be. I know how wood rots and how it warps and how bolts rust. But if I am honest, the truth is that somewhere between childhood and the murky part of middle age, I became a chicken. At least when it comes to paying money to cheat death! I don’t need to go on a ride anymore to feel like I cheated death. I am getting to the age that every morning I wake up, I feel like I have cheated death!
When we’re young, we take risks and we don’t consider the dangers because we feel indestructible. But, as we get older and wiser, we become more cautious, more sensible, and a little less willing to take unnecessary chances.
But a problem arises when the same progression happens to us spiritually. As we get older and wiser spiritually, we should actually become more daring because we better understand that “anything is possible with God.”(Mark 10:27). Unfortunately that isn’t always our spiritual progression is it? We don’t like to live by faith because living by sight is often so much easier!
There are lots of human states that go together in life: faith and hope, rest and relaxation, joy and peace, being calm and collected, being confident and assured, but when you think about it, not much goes with fear. Fear seems to crowd everything else out of its way. Fear wants to be the centre of attention. So you can’t be both happy and afraid, or calm and afraid, or confident and afraid, or even merciful and afraid. Fear takes over. Fear wraps us up in a little, self-contained ball that keeps us powerless and imprisoned. And if we allow fear to rule in our lives, it crowds out and distorts our faith.
In his book entitled “Fearless” Max Lucado puts it this way: “When fear shapes our lives, safety becomes our god. When safety becomes our god, we worship the risk-free life.”
And since faith demands that we step beyond our comfort zones and take risks, worshipping God and worshipping the risk-free life are completely incompatible. Therefore, we cannot allow fear to take hold of, and crowed out, our faith.
Today we continue in our series of Mountain Moments by climbing to the summit of the “Mountain of Fear.”
Please turn with me to Exodus 3:1-12, p. 49.
You will recall that we looked at verse one of this passage last week when we talked about “The Mountain of Waiting.” In that message we looked at Acts 7:23-25, in which we have Stephen’s inspired account of what happened to Moses.
Stephen wrote: "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defence and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.”
Verse 25 tells us that Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them when he saved his fellow Israelite from their Egyptian attacker forty years prior to the time we meet up with him in our passage today. He thought that his time to be God’s deliverer had arrived. Unfortunately, he was off by forty years! For forty years, he finds himself living in the wilderness until we meet up with him at the beginning of chapter 3.
Beginning with verse 1 we read: Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up." 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." 5 "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." 6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. 7 The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, andI have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." 11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
Last week when we climbed to the summit of “The Mountain of Waiting”, we had our first look at Moses. And we touched on the youthful zeal of Moses when he first took up the call to be deliverer of God’s people.
In Hebrews 11:24-26, we get another insight into Moses faith before he left Egypt for the wilderness. The writer of Hebrews writes, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.”
What an incredible image! Moses was a man who walked away from more power, more money and more comfort than any of us can imagine. Moses threw away a life of luxury and ease in order to identify himself with his people. The writer of Hebrews tells us that “he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God.” Moses was a man of faith and substance that sacrificed the risk-free life for a life full of risks, and at some point, those risk must have taken their toll because the Moses we meet today is quite different that the man who threw everything away to serve God and lead God’s people.
In fact, in verse 11, after God has introduced Himself and given Moses a brief overview of His plan, Moses tells God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
I don’t know about you, but that isn’t what I was expecting from Moses. I would have expected Moses to say something like: “Finally Lord, my time has come! I’ve been waiting for this day. I’m there! Get me on the next bus to Egypt!” (I say ‘bus’ because everyone knows that they didn’t have planes back then.) But, instead of Moses showing some excitement and enthusiasm because his dream is finally coming true, we find Moses showing doubt and insecurity. “Who am I?” he says. “You got the wrong guy God!” Throughout God’s discussion with Moses, Moses continues to exhibit insecurity and a lack of faith.
If I were God, I would have used the burning bush to singe the hair off of Moses’ big toes. Thankfully, God is much more patient than I and He gently addresses Moses’ questions one by one. But answered questions weren’t enough for Moses. Moses is standing there, with a burning bush that isn’t burning and God is speaking directly to Him, but Moses remains unconvinced. Finally, when Moses had run out of questions, he simply said to God, “Send someone else to do it, I’m not interested!" (Exodus 4:13).
Where is the Moses who left everything to follow God? Where is the Moses that acted boldly and decisively when he saw the injustice of the Egyptians against God’s people? What happened to Moses? We can begin to speculate.
Forty years had gone by. Forty years of experience. Forty years that made his desire, his call, and his people a distance memory. He now had a wife, and a family — responsibilities that he didn’t have back then. The more responsibilities we have, the more cautious we become, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. But, I don’t think these things are the primary cause of Moses’ lack of commitment to God’s plan.
I believe what changed Moses' attitude most of all was fear. Fear of what you might ask? Well, how about the fear of failure.
Failure is a powerful weapon in the enemy's hand. True failure is part of everyone's life. In fact, failure is a necessary part of everyone’s learning experience, but failure can easily bring fear– fear of failing again, fear of trying again, fear of rejection and even fear of God. And I believe that’s part of what’s behind Moses’ reaction.
Moses had dreams of being a great deliverer. He had made tremendous sacrifices. He gave up an easy life. He gave up a privileged life. He stepped out boldly, but what did it get him? It got him a fear of death. It got him exile from Egypt and forty years of hard work in the desert. Forty years to replay his misguided efforts over and over again in his mind. Forty years of kicking himself for even trying. Forty years to think about how he had blown his call.
Failure showed itself in his dusty footprints. It echoed in the bleats of the sheep and in the whisper of the hot east wind. To step out in faith, meant the possibility of falling on his face again. Some people can’t face any more failure so they just stop trying.
How afraid are you of failing? Some Christians are too afraid to try anything: too afraid of failure, too afraid of looking foolish. So they just stop trying. They follow a policy of guarded living, holding back time, talents, and treasure from God's service. Their motto is: “To keep from failing–don't try!” What would have happened if Moses hadn’t finally listened to God and went back to Egypt? Well, God would still have delivered His people, because God’s will, will be done, whether we chose to be a part of it or not, but Moses would have suffered. He would have never become a great man of faith and His life would have been wasted and pointless.
I have said this before, but it is always worth repeating. Faith does not remove fear—faith overcomes fear. If we never had to face fear, we would never have to have faith. If God never called us to do things beyond our comfort zones and even beyond our own abilities, we would not need faith.
If we were to look at it from another angle, faith and fear go together. If we are living by faith, fear will present itself. The greater the step of faith, the greater the possibility of failure: the greater the possibility of failure, the greater the fear. So faith and fear go together, but faith overcomes fear while a lack of faith multiplies fear.
Let me ask you a question, can you identify with Moses as he stands before God saying, “Not me Lord, you got the wrong person, go find someone else”? I do! I’ve had that very same conversation with God a few times.
If you can’t identify with Moses, maybe you have never really made a big enough step of faith in your life. We need to learn from Moses. You see, Moses reluctance, given what he has gone through, really isn’t a surprise—it’s expected. What makes Moses a man used by God is that he eventually does push through the fear—even though God had just told Him that he is going to go toe to toe with Pharaoh, even though God is telling him that he will lead his people out of Egypt into the Promise Land, even though Moses has to face, head-on, his past failure, Moses works though the fear and regains his faith. How does Moses regain his faith? How does he push through the fear? He listened to God instead of his fears. God coaxed him through his fears. And how does God coax him out of his fear? One word: Grace.
God tells Moses in verse 12,"I will be with you.” What’s the difference between what Moses tried to do forty years before this and what God was calling him to do now? As far as actual calling, there is nothing different. He would be God’s deliverer, but as far as practical application, everything! The first time Moses tried to please God in his own strength. This time God would be with Him. God would be supplying the strength, the power, the guidance for victory. This is what we call grace. Grace is God providing us what we lack so that we can please Him.
One of the things that often irritate me is that we usually think of grace only in terms of our salvation. Grace is God’s gift of salvation through Christ. Jesus supplied the sacrifice for our sins so that we could escape God’s wrath and be reconciled to Him. Grace is all that, but it is so much more. Grace is a state: it is the natural operating procedure for us as Christians. We are not only saved by faith through grace, we are to live by grace. And I would suggest to you that the more we understand grace the less we are crippled by fear.
In 1 John we read that: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18)
John tells us that fear is connected with punishment. In this case we are talking specifically about God’s punishment. John says that if we don’t understand God’s love for us, we will fear, and if we have fear, we have a barrier to our growth as Christians. In other words, not understanding God’s grace produces fear and fear impedes our maturing in Christ.
Jesus says something interesting in Matthew’s gospel. You remember the story of the paralytic man who is brought to Jesus by his friends so that Jesus could heal him?
Matthew writes: ‘And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, "Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven."’ (Matthew 9:2, NASB)
That’s an interesting choice of words that Jesus uses, isn’t it? Of course, an argument arises with the religious leaders because they question Jesus authority to forgive sins, but the point I want you to see right now is that Jesus connects courage with forgiveness. Take courage. Be encouraged, your sins are forgiven. Get up and live! Your sins are forgiven! Grace gives us courage to live for God. The fact that we are not alone and that God has promised to be with us, to help us, rather than punish us, gives us courage to push through any fear and live boldly, victoriously for Christ.
Going back to Max Lucado’s book fearless, he writes: “Nothing fosters courage like a clear grasp of grace. And nothing fosters fear like an ignorance of mercy.”
In Matthew 8 we have the account of Jesus calming the storm. Beginning with verse 23 we read: Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" 26 He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
I love this passage. Jesus is sleeping while the seasoned fishermen fear for their lives. If you think about it, the fact that Jesus was asleep, should have tipped the disciples off. I think Jesus took a nap on purpose. Jesus planned to be asleep during the storm because He was trying to teach His disciples something about fear and faith.
Mark’s Gospel gives a bit more insight into this event. In Mark 4:38, we read: Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"
Notice the question. They don’t ask Jesus to calm the storm. They don’t ask Jesus what they should do—they just attack Jesus’ character: “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” They accuse Jesus of not caring about them. Fear does that. When we are afraid we can quickly start to doubt God’s goodness.
Matthew uses an interesting word in his account of the storm. The Greek word that is translated by the NIV as “furious storm” is ‘seismos’. This is the word that we get our word ‘seismic’ from. It usually is translated as earthquake. This is an interesting word to use to describe the storm, don’t you think? There are lots of other Greek words that Matthew could have used, but he chose a word that he also uses two other times, once at the cross (27:54) and once at the resurrection (28:2). Maybe his point is just to express how severe the storm was, but perhaps something more is going on here. Maybe Matthew wants us to understand that we don’t have to be afraid of any storms that come our way because Jesus went through the mother of all storms at the cross. He faced sin and death so we no longer have to fear. To put it another way: How could the disciples doubt that Jesus cared about them in their present storm when He was willing to help them escape the greatest storm of all—God’s punishment.
My point being that God’s grace allows us to face the storms of life. Jesus asks us, “Why are you afraid? Here I am with you? What is there to be afraid of?
The account reminds me of being a kid and waking from a nightmare. You wake up confused and completely afraid—convinced that the monsters in the closet or under the bed are just about to devour you, so what do you do? You run to your dad, right? You wake him up and say, “Dad I’m afraid, there are monsters!” Meanwhile, dad, smiles to himself because he knows that there is absolutely no real reason for fear. Still, he takes us back to our room and looks in the closet and looks under the bed and he gives us a kiss and reminds us that he is right there next to us, protecting us and making sure that we’ll be OK. Maybe that’s the way that God looks at the storms in our lives. Jesus was able to sleep because He knew there was nothing really to fear. To him the storm was nothing more serious than a monster under our bed. One thing is certain: God has a different perspective on your fears.
I find it interesting that Jesus came into this world to bring us grace and the one statement that He made more than any other was: “Don’t be afraid!” He says that more than twice as much as any other statement.
This says two things to me: One, Jesus knows that fear is a big part of our lives and two, Jesus came to take care of our fear and He did it through grace.
Jesus left the disciples with this message: “And surelyI am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:20) He is with us. That’s grace.
What causes fear, particularly fear of failure? It is the fear of judgment, is it not? We don’t want to disappoint. When we think that life is all about our performance and how well we do, rather than it being about grace, fear has a fertile ground to grow. But, when we understand that God is with us—cheering us on and telling us: “It’s OK, get up at try again. Don’t be afraid! Don’t worry about the storm, one day it will seem like nothing more than the faintest wisp of a bad dream.” Then we have a life being lived in the fertile ground of grace. And it is only in the ground of grace that we can really grow into the person, the servant, the lover of people that God has called us to be. So don’t be afraid, trust in the grace of God. Trust that He cares and that He is with you!
