Know Fear

I follow a bunch of teacher stuff especially the comedy about stories that happen in schools. When I read about this car line story. DO you know the car line? It’s the line where you can pick up or drop off kids at the school. There are all kinds of stories of parents behaving in weird ways but one I could see scaring most of the people at my school.

A teacher by the name of Scottie S. reported, “A mom was was hopping around screaming outside the car in the car line, because she was transporting her kids pet which she was already terrified of, but then her kids pet got out of its box and this very large snake, escaped the box and then when mom came screaming out of the car. The teacher had to go into the SUV to get that snake and get this line moving again! She , and I’m trying to find a snake in an SUV to get her car moving.”

Fear can make us do crazy things!

Was talking with a child about how much teasing they were getting and how they didn’t want to be seen as a loser. Their “friend” kept teasing them and calling them a loser, so they fought back and started spitting on them.

Fear makes you do crazy things

But it also makes you do reasonable things.

Not walking on cliffs or ledges or really high places

Holding all your grocery money in your hand as you walk around the store or just placing it down in the store

Try to hug a bear, shake the hand of a gorilla or kiss a snake

Take a long walk around downtown late at night

Take a written test

Walk into a store and just start talking to strangers

Riding in my car when I’m driving

Fear helps keep you from doing sometimes dumb things

but it can also stop you from doing just about anything.

This God-given sense is meant for us to understand what we should care about and what we shouldn’t.

Fear is a gift, to know what we should respect and trust.

Today is a day to remember the important things in life. When we don’t remember the important things we can get stuck doing or worrying about the wrong thing.

Our priorities can get very messed up.

Recently in Stockton we have a had a horrible murders of teenagers. A few different groups went to the place, a park, where the murders occured.

It was reported by one of the groups … fight … they weren’t allowed to get involved in breaking up a fight … Fear of getting fired, sued, or hurt leaves us forgetting what is important. There is only one side to this story and it was written on social media but i have heard many talk and been trained myself by store managers in retail settings not to stop someone stealing from a store or get involved in disputes out of fear of lawsuits, injury, or protecting the wrong thing.

What fear is controlling you?

God speaks to our fear but it might not be what you think.

All this talk about fear is because of the part in the book of Nehemiah, a book in the Bible, that we have been looking at each and every word of this Biblical book and it is the part that we come to today. And as we already talked about, we understand what it is like to be afraid.

Nehemiah 4:11–14 CSB

11 And our enemies said, “They won’t realize it until we’re among them and can kill them and stop the work.” 12 When the Jews who lived nearby arrived, they said to us time and again, “Everywhere you turn, they attack us.” 13 So I stationed people behind the lowest sections of the wall, at the vulnerable areas. I stationed them by families with their swords, spears, and bows. 14 After I made an inspection, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes.”

The people were reasonably afraid of dying.

It was going to stop their work

Nehemiah 4:14 CSB

14 After I made an inspection, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord, and fight for your countrymen, your sons and daughters, your wives and homes.”

To my own children I tell them don’t fear the other children who are teasing you, fear me and the consequences from me if you do the wrong thing.

Jesus told us the same thing. about our Heavenly father. One with much more power than anyone else.

Luke 12:5 CSB

5 But I will show you the one to fear: Fear him who has authority to throw people into hell after death. Yes, I say to you, this is the one to fear!

God tells us to be in fear of him because to understand God in this way means we hold him in proper respect. The one who holds the universe together, not the universe itself, that is just a part of his creation. Those who say tell the universe are refusing to take the next step and know and name their unknown God.

Why fear?

Fear is a sign of respect

- I don’t hug a bear in nature because I respect its strength

Fear is a sign of humility

365 Days with Spurgeon (Volume 1) (23 August)

In the late 1800s the famous preacher Charles Spurgon shared, “Many through fear of worldly loss have brought great guilt into their consciences; some through fear of ridicule and laughter have not had the boldness to follow the right, and so have gone (their own way) and been ruined. Yea, and where fear does not work utter destruction it is capable of doing much damage to the spirit. Fear has paralysed the arm of the most gigantic Christian, stopped him in his race, and … his (work). Faith can do anything, but fear, sinful fear, can do just nothing at all, except prevent faith from performing its (work).

“The one you seek to please is the one you fear” - Charles Spurgeon

In this moment, who do you seek to please? I have seen teacher’s seek to please the most disruptive student so that they wouldn’t “go off” in anger and make their day miserable. Adults do that with other adults.

It isn’t all negative. We spent the weekend trying to please Andrew as he celebrated his 15th birthday and we got to honor the life that God has given him. Mother’s Day is next Sunday and many will spend the day attempting to please mother.

It is about order.

Matthew 22:36–39 CSB

36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

We shorten even that to

Love God, Love Others

Please God first! Put God before all others. Be willing to let the wrath of another come out if it means loving God will falter.

Because the next statement is the truth of our actions.

Fear is a sign of what your really trust

Psalm 147:11 CSB

11 The Lord values those who fear him, those who put their hope in his faithful love.

Isaiah 51:7–8 NLT

7 “Listen to me, you who know right from wrong, you who cherish my law in your hearts. Do not be afraid of people’s scorn, nor fear their insults. 8 For the moth will devour them as it devours clothing. The worm will eat at them as it eats wool. But my righteousness will last forever. My salvation will continue from generation to generation.”

God will out last anyone you fear. Out last anyone you respect.

Therefore Fear is a sign of Faith.

In the very happiest of times, God is with us. He is more than a bodyguard because we work for God not God working for us. Instead God is our victor, our hero, the strongest of all and will fight for us, heal for us, and always give us a way to follow Him.

I have to always remember that at times when my feelings are crushed God is with me. At times when my health or the health of my friends is bad, God is before me. When someone is trying to rip me off, God is before me. When someone asks for help, God is before me. When life is threatened, God is before me.

Deuteronomy 20:1 CSB

1 “When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

Psalm 147:11 CSB

11 The Lord values those who fear him, those who put their hope in his faithful love.