Monsters (2)
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“Fear”
“Fear”
welcome church
recap last week
lets start off with this verse this morning! talk about this for a bit....
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
preach on this, as we move forward in this message and with this series let us know this right of the bat, God has not given us a spirit of fear, lets not let the enemy try and fill us with fear...
preach on spiritual warfare…the enemy will try…its his tactic and like we learned last week we must be wise to his tactics and schemes...
in todays time there are plenty of reasons to fear, turn on the news and right away you see why you should “fear”....
preach on the enemy using fear to hold you back and to hold you still....
lifes most common fears we deal with
LOSS
FAILURE
REJECTION
UNKNOWN
Do any of these sound like things you fear? Do you fear losing something? What if something happens to someone you care about, like your spouse or your kids? What if something happens to derail your marriage. What is going to happen if you lose your health or your job? Maybe your afraid of losing control.
Are you afraid of failure? Afraid you won’t measure up to someone’s expectations or some standard you have created for yourself? That you won’t be able to keep up financially? You really want to do good, help people, and make God proud, but you feel like a spiritual failure.
When you were a kid, you were always picked last for the team. Now you fear rejection. You don’t want to be left out again. Maybe you are afraid your spouse would rather hang out with someone else, or even leave because they just aren’t happy with you.
In life there are too many unknowns, maybe that makes you nervous. You do everything you can to stay healthy, but sometimes it just doesn’t matter. What if I end up with some crazy illness anyway? What if everything crashes and I can’t provide for my family?
you see it keeps you stuck and still to where we dont want to move or do anything....and that keeps us from growing in christ...
ive been blessed with opportunity to do marketing for some business, do you know one of marketings biggest advertisment tools is fear....fomo
have you heard of fomo, fear of missing out....if companies can make you fear that you are going to miss out on the next big thing, then they know they got you....
“Don’t miss this sale! You don’t want to look ugly, buy this product! People are spying on you, subscribe to this VPN! This group of people want to ruin your life, vote for this guy!”
fear can and will control you if we let it....
today we are making oursleves aware of the fear we hold in our lives so we can recognize it and begin to trust in God
just like pride is replacing God in our lives, fear does the same
rather then trusting God and putting our faith in him, we can begin to put our trust and faith in the “what ifs” of life....
lets look at Moses real quick, God called him and asked him to go stand up to Pharaoh and lead His people out of Egypt on His behalf…
Moses’ response
Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ”
I love the NLT version here it goes, “But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you’?”
theres fear, and in that fear he is questioning God and trusting in the what ifs....
Instead of placing faith in GOD’s PROMISE, Moses put faith in the WHAT IF? What if they don’t listen to me? What if they don’t believe me? What if the bottom falls out of the economy? What if I lose my job? What if something happens to my kids? What if I leave for work and get in a car wreck? What if? What if? What if?…
Fear causes us to ultimately not live life, and live the life God has called us to live....can you imagine if Moses did continue to be lead by fear rather then finally trusting God....
I believe God would have gotten his people out of Egypt with or without moses....I dont want that to be said about me because fear kept me from stepping out....
well pastor joseph fear just shows what i care about the most right…?
well sure....fear will reveal what you care about the most....
If you are afraid of losing your marriage, what do you value? Marriage. If you are worried something may happen to your child, it shows you love and value your child. If you are afraid you won’t be able to pay the bills or you might lose your job, it shows that you value financial security.
but it also shows where we trust God the least....
What you fear the most reveals what you hold most valuable AND where you give God the least amount of trust.
So if you are afraid of losing your marriage, sure you value marriage, but do you really trust God with your marriage?
If you fear something happening to a child, do you trust God with your children?
If you are afraid of not having enough, are you trusting God to be your provider?
lets take a moment today within yourself to ask yourself this question....
What is your “What if?” I want to encourage you to be honest for a moment and truthfully acknowledge where your fear is stronger than your faith in God. Where your faith in the “What If?” is stronger than your faith in God. If you are taking notes, I would even encourage you to give it a name and write it down…
I’M NOT TRUSTING GOD WITH:________________
My children, our future, my health, someone I love, my parents, my job, my friends. What is your “What if?”
it might seem silly but heres why its important, acknowledging those areas in our life where fear is allows us to begin to remove that fear and replacing it by trusting in God....
acknowledge your fear, that is the only way we can give it to God...
Tell story of hiding my fear of heights, and working for the airport....
preach it....
when i finally acknowledged my fear i was able to tell my boss we worked things out and I was able to trust in the process better....
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
so today lets acknowledge our fears, whatever those “what ifs” might be and lets lay them down before the lord and begin to trust in him with everything no longer allowing that fear to dictate our lives....
REMEMBER 2 TIM 1:7 AND REMEMBER GOD GAVE US THE POWER OF LOVE AND THAT PERFECT LOVE... WELL LETS READ
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
lets pray
HOLY SPIRIT TAKE OVER....