The Other Face Of Fear

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.