“No Fear?”
Have you ever seen that decal on someone’s shirt or in the back of a lot of car and truck windows that says “no fear”? Exactly what does that does it mean? Are they claiming that they are not afraid of anything? Do they think that they are somehow invincible and have never experienced nor ever will experience fear? Well the truth is that all of us have fears of some kind or another; some people are afraid of spiders, some of snakes, thunderstorms, small spaces, and most people fear death--the list goes on and on...there are countless things that we are afraid of.
Take little Johnny Wilkins for instance, one day he was in the kitchen helping his grandma with supper. She was busy stirring a big pot of soup and asked Johnny to go into the pantry and get her a jar of canned tomatoes for the soup. Well, it was one of those big walk-in pantries and when Johnny went to turn on the light switch, he discovered that the bulb must have blown. So, he stood there with the door open, peering into the dark pantry. His grandmother saw him standing there and asked again for the tomatoes. Johnny said; the light’s blown and it’s too dark in there. His grandmother said, don’t worry sweetie, Jesus is in there, now go and get the tomatoes for grandma. Johnny really wanted to be brave but he just couldn’t summon the courage to go in and was about to walk away from the pantry when he suddenly had a great idea. He slowly opened the pantry
door once more and whispered into the darkness; “Jesus...? if you’re really in there, will you hand me a jar of tomatoes for my grandma?”
A great man once said; “there is nothing to fear but fear itself.” This morning, we will attempt to prove that, spiritually speaking, this is a one hundred percent accurate statement--for the Christian that is.
The scriptures have a lot to say about fear and what role it has in the lives of the God’s people. Going into this study, we need to realize that the bible talks about two kinds of fear.......the fear of the Lord and the fear of all else. When it talks about the “fear of the Lord” of course we realize that this word translated more accurately in our language is not “fear” as we know it, but “reverence.” And since I’ve delivered to you several sermons about the fear of the Lord, the Spirit has moved me to share with you a little bit about the other kind of fear.
We’ll begin this morning in the often times neglected book of Numbers. Chapter 13:26-33
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we
explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked
the same to them.” (NIV)
Now, let’s put ourselves in the places of these 12 spies that were sent to explore the land; would your report have been like Caleb and Joshua’s or like the other ten who brought back not only the fruit of the land but also a full load of doubt and fear as well ? How would you have reacted if you were among the rest of the Israelites who heard these reports? Would you have trusted the Lord and followed Moses and Joshua into battle without giving it a second thought? Or would you have backed up and given your support to the ones who were talking about packing it all up and going back to Egypt to become slaves again?
Sitting here today, thousands of years later, it seems like a pretty easy choice doesn’t it? We find it relatively easy to condemn the Israelites for their blatant lack of faith in the Lord who had not long ago miraculously delivered those same people from bondage! Yet now, in spite of all the miracles the Lord had performed in their lives, instead of
seeing the power of the Almighty God, they only saw fear.
Now could the study of this incident that happened so long ago possibly be of any use to us? --I mean, we aren’t going to have to go and “take possession” of an inhabited land filled with giants any time soon are we? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean that there is not a spiritual lesson for us in this millennia old piece of biblical history.
You see, over the years that I’ve studied the Word of God, I have learned something very important about how to study....always look for that lesson because the Lord gives us this promise in Romans chapter 14:4;
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us , so that through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
You see friends, there is definitely a parallel between what happened there at the borders of the promised land long ago and what is happening to us today. The journey of the Jewish Nation out of Egypt and into the Promised Land depicts many of the same struggles and experiences that we have in our own personal Christian journeys.
For instance,(1) the Israelites were miraculously delivered from bondage to Egypt; when we repent of our sins and accept the Lord as Savior of our lives, we too are at that moment delivered from our bondage to sin.(2) When they crossed through the Red Sea, they were all “baptized”, if you will, and at that point were “set apart” from their former life in Egypt. When we enter the baptism pool, we too are making a public statement to God and to everyone else that we are leaving behind our previous lives of bondage to sin and are being set apart as citizens of a “higer” Kingdom.
We’d like to say that this is where the similarities end wouldn’t we? But is it? No, now we approach the borders of the “New Land” ---the new life... God told the Israelites to “take possession” of this land that was well fortified with walls up to the sky, and occupied by mighty warriors who were of great stature-some translations even callthem “giants.”
What about us? Do we face the same obstacles in our Christian journey? Do we sometimes find ourselves up against “high walls and giants”?
Now let me ask you, have you charged forward in your battle trusting God’s promise to give you the victory....or are you still just hanging around the outer fringes of the promised land not yet fully confidant of success? Sometimes does Satan have you convinced that it is useless to go up against such an adversary? Like those Israelites of old, do you occasionally feel like giving up and going back to your former life?
In Deuteronomy 1:21 as they approached the borders of the promised land the word of the Lord came them saying this; “See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your fathers told you. Do not be afraid and do not be discouraged.” In other words, God is saying; don’t worry about how difficult it may look.......trust in My strength.
Listen to what He tells us in Isaiah 43:1-3; “But now, listen to what the Lord says-He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you , O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over
you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God...’”
You see, when God tells us to go “take possession” of our lives....conquering and evicting the many sins that reside there, we hesitate and fear that we will fail miserably. And if we doubt the promises of the Lord and fear failure, then we are already halfway to certain defeat because fear is like a cancer that slowly kills our faith.
Now there is another form of fear that is called by another name but is still fear non the less. It is called “worry.” How many of you are familiar with worry? We worry about all sorts of things don’t we? We worry about money, our house, our jobs, our family, our health, the ozone layer,what will happen in the future........and if there
aren’t enough legitement worries on hand.....we tend to invent things to worry about! And what kind of affect does worry have on our lives? Excessive worrying has been linked to high blood pressure, depression, and numerous other physical and mental health problems. And I’m afraid that, if you are a chronic worrier, then I guess you need to add worrying
to your list of worries.
But, what does the bible say about this form of fear that we call worry? Should we as Christians be among those who surcum to this fear?
Read the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-27:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
I am reminded of one of my favorite psalms where David prays in the 23rd chapter; “Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil......for Thou art with me..”
The scriptures tell us that ‘perfect love drives out fear’. Read what Paul writes in Romans 8:35-38:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
May I suggest to you that if we fully accept the love and will of God in our lives--if we allow Jesus to overflow into every facet of our being..then there will be no room for nor any need for fear. May God bless you as you continue to seek Him through His word.
