What Is There To Fear?

We all deal with fear from time to time. Some people give into fear, and some people do everything they can to avoid those things that make them afraid. As most of you know, I will be retiring on the last day of this year. Several have expressed a concern over that. Having a pastor for over 28 years and then him retiring creates a lot of questions and I think a little bit of fear.

I have prayed about your concerns and fear and God has led me to discuss over the next 4 weeks the highs and the lows of fear. I first want to say that you really have nothing to be afraid of. It was Franklin Roosevelt that said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” But that statement is not completely true. There is one fear that is not only necessary but can be beneficial: that is the fear of God. We're going to use Psalm 33 this morning to hopefully create a healthy fear of God—a healthy fear that leads us to better navigate life. Let's begin with prayer. Prayer.

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Let me first say before we get into the Scripture that as we search for a new pastor to replace me, if we will simply pray about it and leave it in God's hands, He will supply the person He has already chosen. There is really nothing to be afraid of.

The Psalms are a collection of Hebrew poetry, used as both songs and prayers, and leading the reader to worship God. The Psalms were written as the writers experienced different twists and turns in their life. If you are ever down about something or are walking through a troublesome time in your life, the Psalms are a great place to turn for wisdom and a glimpse of how others navigated the tricky part of their life.

Let me ask you, do you want God to have control over who is called to be the next pastor of this church? Of course, we do. That is the only way it is really going to work. Well, if we are placing this in God's hands, then we need to acknowledge who God is. Realize that we are placing this situation into the hands of a God that spoke all of creation into existence. Can He handle the placement of a new pastor? Of course, He can. Let's begin in Psalm 33:6.

Psalm 33:6–9 – “The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth. 7 He gathers the water of the sea into a heap; he puts the depths into storehouses. 8 Let the whole earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 9 For he spoke, and it came into being; he commanded, and it came into existence.”

That is my God. I hope He is yours. He did all of this so we should have no reason to question if He knows what He's doing in replacing me as pastor of this church.

Psalm 33 calls us to praise the Lord for who He is. We don't know who wrote this Psalm, but the psalmist points us to what God has done, it points us to His Word, and His creative power and work. He paints this poetic picture of the work of God. No one is like God. He can speak things into existence. No one has ever been able to create something from nothing with his hands, but God can do the unbelievable with just His words.

Caran and I like to go to the coast to get away from things. When I stand on the beach and look out over the ocean, I have to marvel at the vastness of it. But as massive as the ocean is, God is even greater. He's the One that “gathers the water of the sea into a heap, He puts the depths into storehouses.” We can tell that the psalmist was genuinely in awe of the grandness and the magnitude of God.

This led him to fear God because he was standing in awe of God as the Creator. He says in verse 8, “Let the whole earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.” As we become more and more aware of God's glory and His power, we should be drawn into a response of fear and awe.

Awe is a vital ingredient to a healthy fear of God. As we read God's Word and hear how God simply spoke the world into existence and made everything out of nothing, we just want to say, “Wow!” That is kind of like the feeling this psalmist felt as he responded to the awesomeness of God. That awe led him to fear God because he recognized the bigness of God and what God was able to do.