The Love of God and Fear Overcome

The Love of God and Fear Overcome

Dr. J. Mike Minnix, Editor, www.pastorlife.com

Introduction

1 John 4:16-19: ¹⁶ And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. ¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us.

What is the source of fear? The Bible states, “God has not given us a spirit of fear.” If fear controls, intimidates, manipulates your life, it is not from God. Fear torments, as John tells us in our text and God has clearly told us that He does not want us to live in fear.

Did you know that there are 79 different classifications of fear?

• There is the fear of life and the fear of death.
• There is the fear of sickness and the fear of success.
• There is the fear of the past, fear of the present and the fear of the future.
• There is the fear of poverty and the fear of rejection.

Many kinds of fear exist and they can cause people to do unusual things. A man picked up the body of a rancher while working for a funeral home. He had a partner with him who fell asleep as they drove back to the funeral home. As they drove along, the driver saw a hitchhiker and decided to pick him up. He told the man he would have to ride in the back with the body since the two seats upfront were occupied. The partner in the front of the hearse was never woke up when the hitchhiker climbed in the back of the hearse. When the sleeping partner woke up, the driver forgot to tell him that there was a man sitting in the back with the body. After a few moments, the man in the back opened the curtain in the hearse and asked, “Hey, do you mind if I smoke?” The story is that the partner jumped out of the hearse doing 40 miles an hour.

We fear most the things we do not understand. One man had a wreck because he had never seen a tumble weed, mistook it for a boulder and drove off the road and ran into a tree.

A preacher once drove to a neighboring town to order a mural for a stained glass window. He forgot the size of the window and called his wife to get the dimensions. He drove on the store where he was to order the window and talked for a few moments with the ladies behind the counter before beginning to place his order. He told the ladies he was very excited because he and his wife were expecting their first child. Just then his wife faxed him the dimensions of the window. The lady saw the fax, noted that it was addressed to the preacher but suddenly she screamed and fainted. The second lady saw it, screamed and fainted. The manager ran out from the back, and he passed out. The preacher leaped over the counter, read the fax as follows: "Unto to us a Son is born … Eight feet tall and four feet wide." We fear what we don’t understand.

We hear noises in our houses at night and you just know someone is there? One man had a wife who had heard sounds in the house for 20 years. One night she told her husband for the thousandth time, “I heard someone in the house, go downstairs and check it out.” He went downstairs and found a burglar in the house. He said, “Look pal, you can have anything you want, just come up stairs first and meet my wife, she’s been looking for you for 20 years.”

God does not want us to live in fear, but rather desires that we live in faith, peace and joy. Jesus prayed that we would have joy - His joy in us. So let’s look at just two things today.

First, we shall examine ...

I. The Damage of Fear

Fear harms us. In the passage before us, we are told that the person who fears is not made complete or perfect. In other words, the person who fears cannot ever become that which God intends. Fear holds you back for your ultimate potential. Fear is a barrier to you best future in God's will.

John Matuszak was a 6-foot-8, 280-pound football player for the Oakland Raiders. His public image was that of a havoc-wreaking, heavy-drinking, hard-hitting player who was as much of a threat off the field as on. Friends, however, knew "Tooz," as he was called, as a 280-pound puppy dog just begging to be stroked. According to Los Angeles Times writer Mark Heisler, John Matuszak was "beset by fears he couldn't acknowledge." As a young boy, he was ridiculed for his gawky, beanpole appearance. Two brothers died of cystic fibrosis. The image of Tooz was a fortress he had created to hide all the fears he lived with growing up. Sadly, he got trapped in that fear. He died at 38 of a massive heart attack, because his body had been weakened by years of alcohol and drug abuse.

The story of King Saul bears some striking similarities. He too was a monster of a man and a fighter, but he was also driven by his personal fears. He tried to cope with them in his own strength instead of turning to the Lord for help, and his life came to an untimely end. His fear of David, who had no intention of harming King Saul, was so great that it led Saul to a type of insanity. Fear is a dangerous thing - and God does not desire it in your life.

How and why does feart hold us back?

A. Fear Distrusts God

Someone may say, "But, preacher, doesn't God say we are supposed to fear Him?" When you study the idea of fearing God, it speaks of having a respect for God.

My dad was an electrician. I was helping him one day with a project and he took out a tool to check to see if any electricity was passing through a wire. I said, "Dad, you just took that wire loose a few minutes ago." I will never forget what he said. "Son, it helps to have a deep respect for electricity and never take for granted if it is there or not there. Check it every time." My dad was not afraid electricity - he respected it.

Yes, we are to keep God on our mind and respect Him. But, fear in life is very different. It actually comes from not understanding how to respect the presence and power of God.

All fear is, as a matter of fact, of distrust of God. Consider Adam in the Garden of Eden - he ate of the forbidden fruit and then he ran to hide from God. He feared God the wrong way because he had not feared Him the right way from the start.

Actually we can see that fear is the opposite of trust - fear is the opposite of faith. Faith (respect and belief) in God overcomes fear in the face of life in this world.

• Fear not death, for He is life.
• Fear not disease, for He is the one that healeth thee.
• Fear not hunger, for he is the bread of life.
• Fear not life, for he has overcome the world and in Him we overcome.
• Fear not poverty, for He has made us rich in all things.

Also, note that ...

B. Fear Deters Growth

Fear destroys your potential with God and creates an emotional prison in which you must live.

• Fear can destroy your health.
• Fear can destroy your marriage.
• Fear can destroy your career.
• Fear can destroy your children.
• Fear can destroy your friendships.

God has not given us a spirit of fear. The Spirit of God produces growth, but we must not live in fear, since to do so grieves the Holy Spirit of God and destroys the potential for growth and development that God has planned for us. The moment we begin to fear, we are defeated. We cannot grow while we are afraid. Trying to live the Christian life in fear is like a flower living in soil without water - the flower is in the right place but is missing a critical ingredient for life and growth.

In addition ...

C. Fear Defeats Grace

When Adam and Eve sinned, they feared and hid from God. God’s grace could not be given to them as long as they hid. Many are unsaved because they are denying their need for God. Now listen to me carefully at this point. Today we live in a world that looks at Christians as ignorant, science-denying, self-righteous, judgmental kooks. If you fear what the world thinks of you, you will never live the life God has for you. Grace is only available to those who have faith in God and do not fear what any person thinks or says about them.

Ephesians 2:8 states: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God...".

So, we have seen the damage of fear, now let's look at ...

II. The Defeat of Fear

You can overcome fear. The Bible is full of “fear nots” spoken to those who will trust Him. Jesus often said to His disciples that they were not to live in fear.

• Fear not Life, for He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
• Fear not Death - He is One who was dead and He is alive forevermore.
• God told Abraham to fear not for He, the Lord, was his shield.
• God told Moses to fear not.
• God told Gideon to fear not.
• God told Joshua to fear not but to have courage.

Jesus told his disciples in a violent storm to "fear not." The disciples had been on that lake many times and they knew how to sail the waters, but their own ability failed them. At some point in your life, all your skills will fail you. That which you trust most will fail you. All this will happen in order to get you to trust God alone. If you fear, you will fail God and yourself; if you trust God, you will grow and develop into all that God’s wants you to be.

How can one overcome fear?

A. Think on he word LOVE

• Rely on the love of God.
• Trust the heart of God.
• Believe in the grace of God shown in His love.

Fear will flee when you look at how much He loves you and what He has promised to you and for you. If we know that God loves us, we can depend on Him to take us through whatever valley we may face. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear for you are with me..." Is that true? Yes, it is! His presence and love will never leave us, even in the deepest and darkest valley of this life.

Also, to overcome fear, we must ...

B. Think on the word LIVE

Live in Him; don’t live in yourself and your own strength alone.

In the Bible we are told to, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6) To trust means to rely upon.

 When you feel the most alone, always remember that He is present with you. You can "lean" on Him. You can "live" with your faith in Him in every situation.

So, we must think of love and think on the word live, but we must also ...

C. Think on the word LIKE

Act LIKE Jesus. That is, love like Jesus. Relying on Him, and loving as He loved, destroys fear.

"HIDE NOT THY FACE"

A.D. Martin has written this poem of assurance:

"A wee voice from the nighttime called,

'Tell me, Daddy, are you there?

Is your face still looking my way?

If it is, I will not care

That the night is dark and fearsome -

I will go to sleep again.'

And the voice trailed off in slumber

With never a care or pain.

And we who are growing older

As we face life's greatest tests,

With minds that are sore distracted

And our hearts with cares oppressed;

We can still be brave in darkness

When we know our Father's near;

With His face turned ever toward us,

We can sleep without a fear."

In his book "None of These Diseases," Dr. S. I. McMillin points out that experience confirms the testimony of Psalm 91. Quoting an eminent psychiatrist, he said, "No one can appreciate so fully as a doctor the amazingly large percentage of human disease and suffering which is directly traceable to worry, fear, conflict, immorality, dissipation, and ignorance - to unwholesome thinking and unclean living. Sincere acceptance ... of Christ ... would at once wipe out more than half of the difficulties, diseases, and sorrows of the human race."

What a quotation that is, coming from a physician who was an eminent psychiatrist. We forfeit peace when we forsake faith and accept fear.

An old man was asked what had robbed him of joy the most in his lifetime. He replied, "Things that never happened." All of us can recall needless burdens that we have put on our own shoulders by anticipating the worst. Certainly the Lord does not lay such burdens on us.

Someone has cited these three keys to happiness:

1. Fret Not - He Loves you - (John 13:1).
2. Faint Not - He Holds you - (Psalm 139:10).
3. Fear Not - He Keeps you - (Psalm 121:5).

Conclusion

W. B. Davidson wrote, "When just a small child, I accompanied my father on a short trip to see Grandmother, who lived 3 miles from our home. We remained longer that we should have, and night overtook us. Between our home and Grandmother's house was a swamp. That night the frogs' croaking and the crickets' chirping, together with the darkness and the shadows of the trees, frightened me. I inquired of my father if there was any danger of something catching us, but he assured me there was nothing to dread. And so, taking me by the hand, he said, 'I will not allow anything to harm you.' Immediately my fears passed away and I was ready to face the world, for my father had me by the hand."

What do you fear today? Yes, I know each of us must face situations that press us toward a wall of fear, but God is calling us to His peace. As I speak of this just now, I would never make light of the problems, hardships and difficulties anyone here is facing today. But, God is here and He is greater than any problem, hardship, trial or enemy you face. I'm not tying to give you a pep talk on thinking good thoughts in times of trouble - no, I'm calling to come along side Jesus who will hold your hand in His nail-scarred hand. He who endured the cross for you, will never leave you along in this world. Come to Him now.

Of course, if you have never trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and for the salvation He alone can offer, you have my permission to be afraid. It is a fearful thing to go out into death to face the God you have spurned. You, too, can have perfect peace. Come to Christ just now. He loves you and calls you to forgiveness, eternal life and peace.