When Fear Gets A Chokehold Series

DAVID—A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART

07—WHEN FEAR GETS A CHOKEHOLD

TEXT: 1 Samuel 20:1-3

1 Samuel 20:1-3 KJV And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life? [2] And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so. [3] And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.

I. INTRODUCTION—FEAR

A. General

Thomas Hardy—More life may trickle out of men through thought than through a gaping wound.

Frederick the Great—Letter to a General—For the love of God, pull yourself together and do not look at things so darkly: the first step backward makes a poor impression in the army, the second step is dangerous, and the third becomes fatal.

Screwtape to Wormwood—There is nothing like suspense and anxiety for barricading a human’s mind against the Enemy (God). (From C. S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters)

B. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

If you have read Daniel Defoe’s book, Robinson Crusoe, you will remember that it is almost a repeat of the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Rejecting his father’s pleas, he left home in search of wealth and adventure and just as with the prodigal son, Robinson found himself involved in a life of debauchery, recklessness, and sin. It wasn’t too long into his sorry life before he managed to gain employment on a seagoing vessel.

But it just so happened that one day as the ship was sailing the Caribbean that a horrific storm destroyed the ship and they were treading the high seas. He was washed up on a beach of a deserted island, all alone. It was there that his soul began to respond to the Lord. As Providen would have it, a Bible was found among the wreckage that washed up on the shore. Through the reading of the Bible and his prayers, Robinson was converted.

From that conversion, he became a hard-working Christian who was thankful, devout, and although he was totally alone, he was peaceful and prayerful. All the while, his faith grew strong. But one day, he found a footprint in the sand and he suddenly realized he was not alone on the island. Knowing that there were fierce cannibalistic practices of the native tribes, he grew into a fearful man. He looked over his shoulder with every step. He no longer slept peacefully. He altered his habits and patterns. He visualized himself being captured, boiled, and devoured.

In his journal he was keeping, he wrote these words: Thus my fear banished all my religious hope. All that former confidence in God, which was founded upon such a wonderful experience as I had of His goodness, now vanished, as if He that had fed me by miracle before could not preserve, by His power, the provision which He had made for me by His goodness. . .

-That is what fear does to us—it is diametrically opposed to our faith.

C. Biblical

Genesis 3:8-10 KJV And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. [9] And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? [10] And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

-There are multiple other references in the Bible concerning fear. But for the sake of time, we will just take this one and one more from 2nd Timothy.

2 Timothy 1:7 KJV For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

-From the Genesis account we can see that one of the first negative emotions that man ever had to contend with was fear. In fact, perhaps the first one is shame and the second is fear. However both of these are so intertwined and they are terrible weapons the devil uses on us all the time.

-When Adam was in the garden before he felt hate, jealousy, strife, envy, and anger, he felt shame and fear. One of the most negative things that can show up in your life, almost without invitation is fear.