What Are You Afraid Of?

As is the case with all my messages, I am glad to provide my Power Point slides so you can use them as a help for your own.

In this message especially, I used a short video clip showing a funny episode where a cat gets scared and runs into a wall as well as some graphic effects: 1= several photos of things some people are afraid of. 2= a page with over 100 phobias and definitions.

The Salvation Army Herkimer, NY

What Are You Afraid Of?

1 John 4:16b-18 God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we are like Christ here in this world.

18 Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of judgment, and this shows that his love has not been perfected in us.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation,

(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1996.

Fear!

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

----FDR - First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

"Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark."

---- Francis Bacon

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear."

--- H.P. Lovecraft

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is."

----German Proverb

"All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears--of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling on lobsters in the dark, or speaking before a Rotary Club, and of the words "Some Assembly Required."

----Dave Barry

Different people = different fears

Of What?

Two Types of Fear

• the feeling of anxiety and agitation caused by the presence of real or imagined danger, evil, or pain.

• a feeling of reverence toward God.

Different Kinds of Fear

• Fear of Separation and/or Loneliness.

• Includes Death

• Fear of the Unknown.

• Fear of Pain.

• Fear of Loss.

• Even of "Image."

• Loss of Friendships.

• Loss of Control.

How Should We Handle It?

• See things as they really are, not as they appear to be.

• Like Elisha/Gehazi (2 Kings 6)

• See Jesus in the midst of your fears, and let Him calm them

• Matthew 14

• Sometimes He calms the storm, sometimes the child!

What is the Answer?

– Remember that God loves you.

(1 John 4:19) We love each other as a result of his loving us first.

Remember that God lives in you.

(1 John 4:16) We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them

– Give it up!

(1 Pet 5: 7) Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.