Our sermon this evening is entitled, “Having No Fear.” I recall how back in the 1990’s there was a popular brand of clothing with the brand name No Fear. I read an Internet article from that same time period, which says the No Fear slogan “has come to symbolize a ‘cutting edge’ lifestyle” and has been adopted “as the motto for daring youth and extreme sports lovers.”(1)
The No Fear logo used to be sold on anything from clothing, to cell phones, to skateboards, and even motorcycles. I believe the No Fear items were so popular because they were icons of a character trait that many people wished they really had. I believe we all want to feel as though we have a good handle on life and that nothing ever shakes us; but in reality, we’re fearful creatures.
If you don’t think that people are fearful, then just take a look around. What are some common fears you might see when you observe the people you know? Well, some people fear growing old, some fear animals, some fear water, many people fear failure, some fear bad storms and tornadoes, others fear what the stock market is doing, and many individuals fear what the future holds.
What fears do we see when we consider the people who attend church? Well, some of them fear gossip, some fear meeting new people, some individuals fear that God will convict them of something that’s not right with their lives, and closely related to this is the fear of change. And some people even fear that certain church members might be conspiring against them. We all want to appear confident and unshakable, but most of us aren’t.
When the No Fear brand was popular, I believe that some people were actually hoping to identify themselves with the slogan or logo in the hope that it would make them less fearful; and perhaps more confident and brave. However, as one young man named Andy tells us, it won’t work. Andy says, “Does walking around in a sweatshirt that says No Fear really make you fearless? Of course it doesn’t . . . Fear is a part of the human condition . . . [however] I know that my security is in God who has promised never to leave me.”(2)
As we’ll see this evening, fear is a part of the human condition as Andy stated; however, our fears would cease if we could learn to place our trust in God, instead of in some man-made logo. Our fears could go away if we would place our hope in Jesus Christ, instead of in the false securities that we’ve built up through our occupations, activities, or the many masks we wear.
Fear Leads to Emotional Torment (1 John 4:18)
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
The word “fear” is mentioned here four times. The Greek word for “fear” in this verse is phobos,(3) which is where we obtain our English word “phobia.” This information helps us understand a little better the message that’s being presented here. A phobia is defined as “an irrational persistent fear or dread,”(4) and “some mental health professionals would add that a phobia is a fear that interferes in a person’s life.”(5)
The fear that’s being talked about here is one that causes someone to react in ways that can disrupt his or her life in an unhealthy way. It’s a fear that controls a person’s life and can be destructive to personal relationships or even harm one’s mental health. We even read in this verse that “fear involves torment.” This torment is comprised of emotional suffering. Michel de Montaigne says, “The man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.”(6)
Let me give you an extreme, but true example of what fear can do to harm a person’s life. Suppose a child fails to receive attention from his parents, and they tend to criticize him often. This child, who desires to please his parents, will try to do things just perfectly, hoping that they’ll be pleased with how neatly he grooms himself or by how tidy he keeps his room. He wants his parents to love him for doing these things; however, they fail to notice and so he tries even harder.
When this child grows up everything has to be perfect and in order, and since the world is so chaotic he retreats within himself. He can’t hold down a job and he stays at home in his own orderly self-created world. The person becomes critical and angers those closest to him; or he hides from people altogether. This is called OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. As we can see, fear can become a very crippling and debilitating thing in our lives.
Fear is the result of trusting in ourselves instead of trusting God. We read in verse 18, “There is no fear in love.” John actually equates love with God; for in 1 John 4:16, he declares, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God.” John tells us there is no fear in love, and we just read that God is love; therefore, we can conclude that John is also trying to tell us that “there is no fear in God.”
John also says, “He who fears has not been made perfect in love.” If God is love, then that individual has also not been made perfect in God. If we’re trusting and abiding in the love of God, then we’ll know without a shadow of doubt that we have nothing to fear. However, many of us are trying to muddle through life’s problems and difficulties by our own means and methods. We ultimately know that we can’t solve our problems all on our own, but for some crazy reason we keep going our own way, continually living in fear.
In the example of the child with OCD, he tried everything humanly possible to get his parents to like him. He had probably never thought to put the issue in the Lord’s hands and rest in God’s love. And since his value and worth were based on his parents’ opinion of him, and on human approval instead of God’s approval, he hadn’t yet been made perfect in love. He didn’t know that his true value and worth were found in God’s eyes as being a child of the King.
In his book Waking the Dead, author John Eldredge tries to make us aware that Satan begins attacking our heart from the time of our childhood, in order to cause us to lose our sense of identity and sense of worth in God’s eyes. Satan, the accuser, wants to trick us into living apart from the Lord; and then when we do, he’s right there to tell us that we’ve failed and that we’re not worth anything to God, or to anyone else. This leads to living a life of fear. We walk around fearing what other people will think; and also, feeling so rejected by God that we don’t come to Him with our life.
Power, Love and A Sound Mind (2 Timothy 1:7)
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
We just learned how fear leads to torment, specifically mental and emotional torment. In this verse, I want to first focus on how we’re supposed to have a sound mind, and show you how this ties in to fear. Webster defines fear as “a painful emotion or passion excited by an expectation of evil . . . [and] an uneasiness of mind, upon the thought of future evil likely to befall [someone].”(7) Elizabeth Gawain says, “Fear is created not by the world around us, but in the mind, by what we think is going to happen.”(8)
Fear is a sign of mental and emotional instability; however, God promises us a sound mind. I think it’s easy for us to see that the reason why so many of us limp along through life like a wounded animal is because we’re suffering from the devastating emotional effects of fear. So, how do we overcome fear and how do we regain a sound mind? How can we recapture our heart that’s been so deeply wounded by the attacks of the enemy, the devil?
We begin to regain what the enemy has stolen by grasping an understanding of who we are in the eyes of God. We see here that God did not create us to be insignificant slaves, but we were created to be strong and brave through the power of His love. However, instead of being brave, we often fear everything there is to fear except God himself. The writer Oswald Chambers stated, “The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else; whereas, if you do not fear God you fear everything else.”
So, what does fearing God mean? Didn’t we just establish that fear is a bad thing? In Proverbs 1:7, we read, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” “The fear of the Lord” is quite different than phobos, which is an irrational dread that interferes with our lives. “The fear of the Lord” is defined as “a fear conjoined with love and hope, [that] is therefore not . . . dread, but rather . . . reverence.”(9) Deep reverence, hope and love for God is what many of us are lacking in our lives, and that’s why we have so much fear from day to day. We don’t have enough hope that God loves us enough to come through for us.
Many of us don’t fear God, or even worship Him, because we haven’t yet discovered or understood His love for us. Satan has fed us with the lie that God sees us as insignificant, and as some horrible, rotten sinner; therefore, we walk around through life feeling very small indeed. This feeling of worthlessness creates the fear that has greatly ensnared us. We fear every little thing in life, and we’re afraid that God sees us as too insignificant to bother with.
Because we don’t understand how God views us we begin to think that we’re too unworthy to love, and that we’re unable to approach the Lord for help. We think He doesn’t want to help us and so we turn to helping ourselves. And when we try to help ourselves we actually do become small and insignificant, for we cut ourselves off from the very source of power, which is God. It’s one gigantic circle of seeing ourselves as being worthless and then making ourselves worthless. It’s kind of like a self-fulfilling prophecy, and it won’t cease until we begin to see ourselves through the eyes of the Lord.
In James 4:8, we’re told, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” If we’ll draw near to God and allow ourselves to be “made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18), or be made perfect in God who is love (1 John 4:16), then we’ll abide in the Lord’s power; for when we draw near to Him we’ll finally realize that God has redeemed us to be His chosen and beloved children. Being that we are indeed children of the King, we have full protection granted to us by the King, and we’re connected to His power and authority.
Knowing that we’re powerful in Christ and that we’re under His protection will guarantee a life free from fear. For what have we to fear when the Creator of the universe is backing us? When we come to understand our true identity in Christ, we’ll be able to live with a sound mind. And when we’re confident in God, and fear is no more, then we’ll be able to think clearly enough to seek God’s guidance in those situations that we don’t understand, instead of making unwise decisions based on fear that could destroy both our life and the lives of others.
Time of Reflection
What we’ve seen this evening is that many people are living in fear; and fear is destructive not only to our life, but also the lives of others. Fear is the result of not knowing who we really are in Christ. You might call it the result of an identity crisis.
Some people wear No Fear clothing hoping to gain an identity of self-worth and value, and thus a life without fear; however, it doesn’t work. An article of clothing can’t eliminate fear, because it has no power to save. Other people hope to gain a sense of self-worth among their peers and they value the opinion of other people, and their sense of identity is based on people’s opinion. However, people will let you down, and then your sense of self-worth goes crashing down right along with them.
When we lose our sense of security is when we begin to fear. However, if we find our value and worth in Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), we will never be let down. Jesus is our source of stability; for He not only values us as royal children, but He is the Creator of the universe who has power over everything that lives and breathes. There is no reason to fear when you find your identity in Jesus Christ.
NOTES
(1) Korey Capozza, “No Fear of E-Commerce,” taken from the Internet September 2003 at http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/42.html.
(2) Andy, “No Fear: Slogan, Myth, or Reality?,” taken from the Internet September 2003 at http://www.christians-r-us.org.uk/fear/html.
(3) Arthur L. Farstad, trans., et. al., The NKJV Greek English Interlinear New Testament (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), p. 827.
(4) The Merriam-Webster Concise School and Office Dictionary (Springfield: Merriam-Webster, 1991), 388.
(5) Keith Livingston, The Phobia Self -Help Book (Phobias Cured, 2003).
(6) Michel de Montaigne, Webster’s Twenty-first Century Book of Quotations (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992), p. 99.
(7) Noah Webster, 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language (San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education, 2002).
(8) Elizabeth Gawain, Webster’s Twenty-first Century Book of Quotations (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992), p. 98.
(9) M. G. Easton, “Fear of the Lord,” Easton’s Bible Dictionary, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).
