True Heart of Worship
Church of God (Seventh Day) Independent
Church of God (Seventh Day) Independent
The picture for this message is of a fireman walking in a burning building, completely unconcerned about it. That's the kind of fearlessness that we're going to be talking about. Christians should be fearless in that way.
In our lives, there are lots of situations that can cause us to be concerned. Those concerns can lead us to fear. They present themselves as opportunities to fear. We must reject those opportunities.
They can be tomorrow's business presentation, perhaps you've got something you have to present to somebody, and you're not sure how it's going to be received. They can be a coming test at school. They can be walking in an iffy neighborhood at night. Those can cause you to fear if you let them do that.
Those are the small things in our ordinary lives. There are also military people who have a combat mission tomorrow. There are people who have a serious cancer surgery this week. From the little things to the big things, they can cause us to fear.
People deal with fear in many different ways. I've listed a few of them below, but there are probably many others.
So, people have lots of different ways of dealing with fear, but none of them are really that effective, not on a long-term basis. For Christians, they're certainly not what God really wants from us. God has a different plan. That's what this message is about. He wants us to be fearless by faith and by love. He doesn't want us to manage fear, but we should simply be fearless, without fear.
That's a challenge for sure. There are times in our lives when those sources of fear jump out at us too quickly to steady ourselves, or they're really big, or there is more than 1, and it's hard to fight that fear. We'll see that there are people in the Bible who dealt with that.
There are lots of verses about fear. The thing that we see most commonly in those verses comes when God or an angel starts to speak with someone. The very first thing you see is the phrase, "Do not fear". God knows that we struggle with fear.
After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great." (Genesis 15:1)
Then God heard the voice of the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. (Genesis 21:17)
But Yeshua heard the words which they spoke and he said to the ruler of the assembly, "Do not fear; only believe." (Mark 5:36)
And the Angel said to her, "Do not fear, Maryam, for you have found favor with God" (Luke 1:30)
Something new, like God appearing to Abraham in this first verse, is something that could cause a person to fear. The same would be true of angels.
That's God introducing himself to Abraham for the first time. The first thing he says is, "do not fear".
The second verse above is much the same. This is Hagar after Abraham lets Hagar go. In this case, the angel isn't saying, do not fear me, he's saying, do not fear for your life. She's in a bad situation because she's been driven out by Abraham, and she has a boy to take care of.
The third verse moves into the New Testament. Jesus is about to bring a dead girl back to life, and it's necessary for the father to have faith, so Jesus says, "Do not fear." We're going to look at that relationship between faith and fear a little later.
In the last verse, the first thing the angel said to Miriam was, "Do not fear."
We've seen here that fearlessness is necessary for God to be able to work with us and through us.
What are those things that cause us to fear? What are those sources of fear? I've made a list and broken them up in a way that lines up with how the Bible views a person, as body, mind, and sense of self or ego. These are the three targets of fear. The body can be a target of fear; the mind can be a target of fear; the sense of self or the ego can be a target of fear. Each has different kinds of fears.
The body can fear. You might say, "How can it?" The body doesn't have a mind of its own. That's true of course. It's actually the mind that experiences the signals sent by the body. It's also the mind that tries to avoid those signals by preserving the body. It fears for the body.
The body fears sharp things, hot things, fast-moving things, heavy things, and other things because they can cause pain or injury in the body. The injury could have permanent effects, so we fear loss of abilities, like the loss of function in arms and legs, or sight and hearing, or even the loss of those body parts.
All of these sources can cause us to fear that they will happen. If we let it, that fear will cause doubt, which is a poison to faith. God doesn't want us to let fear get to that point.
The mind has a different set of things that cause it to fear for itself. One of those is fear of doing something stupid, making a mistake. We hate it when we do something stupid. We think badly of ourselves. But we are fallible beings who make mistakes all the time. We should accept that. Another kind of fear is the fear of not providing for yourself or others you are responsible for. Another one is the fear of unrealistic expectations and no-win scenarios. Typically this comes from work environments, but it can be at home as well. Sometimes people will give you impossible things to do or an impossibly short times to do them. These can cause our minds to fear.
Of course we can't forget our delicate egos, our senses of self. It fears looking stupid. So, as the mind fears doing something stupid, the self fears looking stupid. It doesn't want to be embarrassed about itself. So it also fears looking like a failure. It fears ridicule and shame.
These fears tend to build chains where the ego is always the last link in the chain. For example, if I do something stupid and hurt myself, I could lose my job and be unable to feed my family, and people will talk behind my back about how stupid I am.
So we have many possible sources of fear in our lives that can cause us to doubt and lose faith, but we know that God wants us not to fear. How do we do that? How do we become fearless? Before we get to that, we need to understand the consequences of fear, which we see through how the world handles fear.
The world lives in fear.
And he would free those who, by the fear of death, all their lives were subjected to bondage. (Hebrews 2:15)
The greatest fear of mankind is death. Therefore preventing death, or at least deferring it, is the highest priority in our society, and the world. That fear of death is so strong that it becomes a society-modifying force. Society begins to focus on not dying and pours its wealth into living as long as possible, preferably indefinitely.
People make extreme efforts and pour their personal wealth into a hope of achieving that. They eat all the right foods that are supposed to make them live longer and better. They read all the best books that tell them how to live long and healthy. They do not see that their fear of death has enslaved them to these things. They eat and do as they are told and sacrifice their wealth to the god of long life. That's what the verse is talking about.
We are back to faith versus fear. Your life as a person of faith is damaged by fear. We are going to look at some verses about faith and fear and how fear crushes faith.
And [Yeshua] arose and rebuked the wind and he said to the sea, "Stop! Shut up!", and the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 And he said to them, "Why are you so fearful? Why do you not have faith?" (Mark 4:39-40)
Jesus and his disciples were on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. A storm came up, and the waves were so ferocious that the disciples were afraid that they were going to die. Jesus had fallen asleep, so they woke him up.
Afterward Jesus asks two questions: Why are you so fearful? Why do you not have faith? In those two questions, he is expressing that dichotomy between faith and fear, that fear is incompatible with faith. If you have fear, it destroys your faith. If you have faith, it will destroy your fear. They both can't exist at the same time.
Jesus is also asking that question because his disciples have already seen him do a whole bunch of miracles. They understand that he can heal broken bodies, restore sight to the blind, cast out demons, and other things, but surely he can't do anything to stop the sea from tossing us around. They can only believe he can do what they have seen him do. They've never seen him calm the waves, so they don't believe he can. That isn't faith. So, Jesus rightly asks: how can it be that you still don't have faith?
In their experience, the source of fear is that waves could swamp their boat, and they could drown. That fear crushes what little faith they have.
Paul talks about a situation that he was in, in Macedonia, where he was fighting against, we believe, a lot of Jews who were contending against him, and other people who were trying to harm him.
For from the time that we came to Macedonia, we had no relief for our body, but we were tormented in all things: combat from without and fear from within. (2 Corinthians 7:5)
When he says, "fear from within", he means there were things there that could have made us fearful. He doesn't mean that we became fearful. As we know from our lives, there are things that can cause us to fear. Paul doesn't say it, but implies that they didn't give in, they didn't fear. They knew that everything was in God's plan and in His hands. So they didn't fear
A multitude of the brethren who are in our Lord have been confident because of my chains and have been all the more defiant without fear to speak the word of God; (Philippians 1:17)
The word "confident" is essentially the same thing as "having faith". It's having confidence based on unseen things. So, it's really faith.
Chains that could have been an embarrassment for Paul have made others confident and able to be fearless in speaking about Jesus. Even in chains, Paul continues to send out the gospel message, to make converts, and to do all the things that he needed to do. This has increased their faith and made it possible for them to fight against the fear that would have otherwise gripped them.
And it is for us to say confidently, "The Lord is my helper; I shall not fear what anyone does to me." (Hebrews 13:6)
This verse is the motto for the message. The phrase "I shall not fear" isn't meant to be said to other people. If you're confident, you don't even need to say it to yourself. You don't say it courageously to summon your courage. You don't say it defiantly to make the fear back off. You don't say it prayerfully to convince God. You don't chant it fearfully as though it is a magic phrase.
Being confident is being assured. It makes it possible to be centered, focused, and calm, instead of shattered by fear.
When life is easy, it's easy to be fearless. It's easy to say fearless things and sound fearless. It's easy to think that you are fearless, but you don't really know if that's the truth. When bad things start to happen in your life, when you're tested, then you know whether you have that ability. It's one of those things that you can only prove out when you get the chance.
God often gives us that chance, not so that he can see the truth, but so that we can see where we are in our progress.
Quite surprisingly, love is also related to fear. At the start, I mentioned that God wants to overcome fear by both faith and love.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts fear outside, because fear is by suspicion (sense of danger; a notion that something is wrong), but he who fears is not grown up in love. (1 John 4:18)
John says some powerful things there. As we saw with faith and fear, love and fear are not compatible. You can't have faith and fear at the same time. One of them kills the other. As we grow in love in our lives, fear should disappear. Examples of the fears we're talking about are the fear of other people and what they might say or do to you. As we grow in faith, we should also grow in love and begin to be fearless in situations where we were fearful before.
It might seem strange that fear and love are related like that. I thought so at first too. But if you really love somebody, even if it's somebody you don't know, if you really have a deep love for all people, you aren't going to fear them. Love really does drive out fear. If you have perfect love, as John says, that will cast fear completely outside of you, and it will be gone from you. That's the kind of fearlessness God wants.
And before everything, have a severe love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. (1 Peter 4:8)
Peter is speaking about the brethren in the church, but what he says applies to all people. Just as Jesus loved those outside the fold enough to die for them, we should also. That love will drive out our fear of them. So even if they look like they might be a scary person, if we truly love them, we won't fear them.
Now I want to talk about Paul a little bit, because Paul was a good example of fearlessness. He went through a lot of different hardships, things that could have caused him to fear. In this story, the ship he's traveling on is caught in a hurricane. We won't see the word fear in this story. Fear is just not part of Paul, which is the way we should be.
And after a little while, the wind of a hurricane came upon us called "Typhoniqos Euroqlydon". 15 And the ship was carried by force and could not stand against the wind and we surrendered to its power. 16 And when we passed an island called Qeuda, we were scarcely able to hold the lifeboat. 17 And when we took it up, we girded it and retained it to the ship, because we were afraid lest it fall in a declivity of the sea, and we took down the sail, and so we moved on.
18 And when the storm arose upon us, it was severe; the next day we threw goods into the sea. 20 And as the storm held it for many days and the sun had not appeared, neither the moon nor the stars, all hope for our lives was entirely cut off. (Acts 27:14-18,20)
Paul says, "we surrendered to its power", which means the wind was so strong that it was driving the ship around, and they could not steer it or use the sails to guide it. They would have taken down their sails and let the wind blow.
He says, "We passed an island." That, in itself, is a scary thing. If the wind had blown a little differently, the ship would have crashed on the rocks around the island.
He also says, "We were scarcely able to hold the lifeboat." Our idea of a lifeboat is different from what it was in Roman times. The lifeboat was really what we would call a Tender, more of a ferry boat. A large ship isn't able to come right up to the shore because the ship's hull would be damaged by rocks near the shore, or at least it would be grounded, stuck on the shore.
The ship would anchor offshore, and people would hop in this smaller Tender boat, which would carry them to the shore. This boat would also be the lifeboat if there were a situation at sea where they had to get off the ship. Unlike the lifeboats of our time, which are stored on the ship, this boat was tugged along by a rope from the ship, and it followed the ship wherever the ship went. With the ship being tossed around in the waves, it's a danger to the ship. It would sometimes pull hard against the ship, and it would sometimes close in on the ship, possibly striking it.
Paul says they took the lifeboat up out of the water and tied it down on the ship, all while the ship was being tossed around in the waves.
Paul also mentions a declivity. He is referring to a gap between two waves. If the Tender was in that gap while the ship was at the top of a wave, it could rip out the back end of the ship.
They took other actions to try to survive this hurricane. They started throwing heavy cargo off the ship. That lets the ship ride higher in the water, which means there is less chance of a wave crossing over the ship and sinking it.
Then the full force of the hurricane came, and it continued for days. Paul says they all expected to die. They believe there's no chance for them. But Paul is fearless, whatever the outcome. He also knows some things. God has told him that he will be in Rome. He continues to trust in God.
And when no one was able to endure the situation, then Paulus arose in their midst and said, "If you men had believed me, we would not have sailed from Crete, and we would have been spared this loss and this suffering." (Act 27:21)
Paul somehow thinks that the middle of a storm is a good time for a good old "I told you so", but that's not really what he's up to. He has a purpose behind it.
He wants to show that God had told him previously that they should have stayed in Crete. His point is, "Because my God told me that previously, you can have faith that what my God is telling you now is true, and this God can be trusted." It's really a call to faith for all of the people on the ship. This God knows the future, and therefore you can have faith that what I'm telling you now is true.
"And now I counsel that we shall be without harm, for the life of none of you will be lost, but only the ship. 23 For tonight, an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve, appeared to me, 24 And he said to me, 'Do not fear, Paul, for you will stand before Caesar and, behold, God has given to you as a gift all who travel with you.' 25 Therefore, take heart, men, for I believe God, that it is so according to what was spoken to me." (Act 27:14-25)
The only mention of fear in these verses is God saying to Paul, "Don't fear." So when fear comes knocking, we need to reject it and be fearless. Then God can continue to work through us.
I want to summarize by talking about that fearless man who walks in the world and is walking without fear. He isn't compartmentalizing the fear, he isn't denying the fear, he isn't doing any of those things that we talked about. He is simply a man, or a woman, without fear.
The fearless man walks calmly, as you would expect. He doesn't need to be watching for danger. That doesn't mean he is careless. He acts prudently, but sometimes fear comes knocking. He just walks calmly. I think the title picture expresses that well. The fireman is in a situation where there are fires all around him, and he's just walking cool. Despite all of the things that might come upon him, he is just calm, cool, and collected. That's how we should be. It should be our goal to become that way.
When fear comes knocking, the fearless man knows that God is in control. Once you truly, truly accept that God is in control of every little aspect of life, and nothing happens without him allowing it to happen, then you can be fearless. Revelation says something we need to hear.
And they were victorious by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of his testimony and they did not love their lives unto death. (Revelation 12:11)
The verse says they were victorious because they were not afraid to die. Bad things may come instead of good things, yet, God is in control of everything. If God has chosen that path for you, it's going to happen; there's nothing you can do about it. Whichever way it goes, God is in control. That faith, and love, make a fearless man.
Love is a critical part. The fearless man loves others too much to be afraid of what they might do to him. No matter what kind of person comes up to you, no matter what they say to you, you love them as you should as a Christian. And because you love them, you're not afraid of them anymore. The fear is driven out by that perfect love. That's how the fearless man deals with fears when they come knocking. They bounce off of him as though he's a bulletproof man.
They bounce off of him because he knows that God is in control of the situation. Whichever way it comes out, it's going to be what God wants, and he wants to be doing what God wants. The fear that is trying to take control of him has no purchase; it has no way to get into him.
But what will happen to the fearless man? He doesn't know. He walks by faith. God has a glorious plan, and he is happy to be a part of that. Sometimes bad things come on the fearless man that are for his own benefit, to show him where he is, to make him stronger. He just continues on, cool, calm, and collected.
Maybe the causes of fear will just melt away and become nothing. I've seen that happen in my life, where something big was coming up and I was concerned about what was going to happen and what the consequences were going to be, and it just melted away and became nothing.
Maybe he will be abandoned by his loved ones, or maybe he'll be mistreated, hurt, or killed. It will be according to God's purpose.
The fearless man is someone who has that faith of knowing that God is in control and has that love that drives out fear. Because of these, he's able to walk through life calmly and without concern for things. I know that's a difficult thing for people to do, but that's where God wants us to be, what we should aspire to.