Theme: The Other Face of fear
Text: Exodus 14: 11-12; II Timothy 1:7
Place: FBC Kodiak, Alaska
Date: January 22,2k6
Intro:
What is Fear? A feeling of anxiety caused by the presence of nearness of danger, evil, pain etc. a feeling of uneasiness.
Everyone knows what its like to be afraid. We all have things that we’re afraid of. A fear I think we have all had at one time or another. There are hidden fears that motivate us too. Fear of failure causes many people to never start, or try anything that is not completely safe. Fear of rejection makes us afraid to do anything that could draw criticism or give someone a chance to laugh at us.
I could go on and on talking about fears and phobias and in the course of naming these different fears we’d probably find that all of them fall into two kinds of fear.
Fear that is good…. keeps us from driving 70mph, picking up a snake, jumping off the side of a building, or other foolish things that you can think of… and Fear that is harmful - This is the "spirit of fear" mentioned in this particular passage. This fear paralyzes us, keeps us from doing things we could or should do.
Perhaps there is a fear that you need to overcome tonight. And tonight we will focus on the other face of fear, the bad fear…the harmful fear…
Prof: Fear makes us …
I. Selfish.
-too much concerned with one’s own welfare or
interests and having little or no concern for
others.
Illus: “A church had sign in front: “JESUS
ONLY.” One night a storm blew out the first
three letters and left “US ONLY.” Too many
churches have come to that.” –Vance Havner
When we are afraid, the only thing we think of is
ourselves. We don’t think about Others. We don’t
think about Almighty God. We just think about
ourselves. When we are afraid, we accuse others,
we excuse ourselves, and we "pass the buck", we
blame other people; and, we run from responsibility!
Illustration:
There was a lady who died in 1916 name Hetty
Green. She was called America’s greatest miser.
When she died in 1916, she left an estate valued
at $100 million. But she was so miserly that she
ate cold oatmeal in order to save the expense of
heating the water. When her son had a severe leg
injury, she took so long trying to find a free
clinic to treat him that his leg had to be
amputated because of advanced infection. I am sure
she was worried about losing her wealth, so she
didn’t even enjoy her life!!
We can be so afraid of losing our wealth or job that we never enjoy our life…Some people are so afraid that something is going to happen to their marriage, that they never get close, or have the intimacy they could have…
Many times we do not share our faith with someone because of fear.
Illus: “People who live for self never succeed in
satisfying self or anybody else.” -Trumbull
No man can live happily who regards himself alone, who turns everything to his own advantage. You must live for others, if you wish to live for yourself.
II. Stubborn.
-refusing to obey, yield or comply. Hard to handle.
A. We resist change.
Illus: “There is nothing permanent except
change.” -Herodotus
In verse 12, of our Scripture text, reading from
the New Living Translation(NLT), we find the
Israelites saying to Moses: "Didn’t we tell you
to leave us alone while we were still in Egypt?"
In other words, church, they were telling Moses,
in effect, "Don’t rock the boat!" "Don’t upset
the ‘status quo’" "We’ve always done it this way
before!"
For so many years they lived in Egypt,and experienced the death-way of life and now redemption is at hand, still the ruling power of their lives are fear. They want to be free, but they want it in a way that there will be no sweat or effort to be made.
Illus: “The world hates change, yet it is the only
thing that has brought progress.”
– Charles F. Kettering
Some Churches are like that. They want progress, but still resist change. As long as we are not compromising our faith, we need change.
B. Keeps people from growing.
It keeps churches from growing. why? Because it
causes us to become stubborn! We see Almighty
God ready to set the people free from 400 years
of bondage; and, they are saying "Leave us
alone!"
There is a new life waiting for those people who are bondage for 400 years. Progress is on the other side. Hope is like a door waiting to be open…and we have the key in our hand, but still we lost our desire because of the treat of fear.
Church, if you want growth, you need to fight for it. You need to work for it. You need to give everything you have .. even your last strength and breath.
You need to ask yourself, “Am I satisfied in my life?” “Am I fulfilled as a Christian.” If you’re not… then we need to grow.
Illus: “Who is not satisfied with himself will
grow; who is not sure of his correctness
will learn many things.” –Chinese proverb
III. Makes us shortsighted.
-(adj) having or showing a lack of foresight.
When the Israelites were confronted with a
pursuing Pharaoh and his army on the one side;
and, the Red Sea on the other side, they
said, "Our Egyptian slavery was far better than
dying out here in the wilderness." They wanted
to go back to the "Good Old Days" in Egypt.
It is pretty obvious, ever since that the people of God wanted to be free. They want new life. They want to grow. But because of Fear, because of the aggressive and numbers of the enemy., they settled not to move forward.
Whatever the need and the desire of your heart; and you want to go for it, there is always a challenge. But the fruit is sweet if you willingly and courageously face and conquer the Fear that is set in front of us.
Conclusion:
There will be times when anxiety and fear will come into our lives, it is then that we have a choice to make. We can choose to focus on the problem and be overcome with fear or we can choose to focus on God and our fear will disappear.
Bless you always,
Pastor butch Magsino
