Overcoming Fear with Faith
Notes
Transcript
Are you a person who lives in fear? Most of us would say we do not live in fear. President Franklin Roosevelt once said, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. So what is it about fear that drives us all. What exactly is fear though? Fear has gotten a bad name not because it is a bad thing but becasue people choose to live there. Fear is nothing more than information. You can choose to live in a world where all you do is take in information that makes you scared but fear and scared are 2 different things. Fear is defined as an anxious feeling, caused by our anticipation of some imagined event or experience. I want you all to take out a pen and write that down.
“Fear: An anxious feeling, caused by our anticipation of some imagined event or experience.”
If you will remember this as you make your way through life it will give you some power over this idea of fear. Today we are going to attack fear from a spiritual perspective in our lives and we will be in Romans 8 verses 12-17. In these scriptures today we will see that the Bible gives us the ability to overcome fear. To overcome fear we will need 3 specific structures. First we must be of a Spiritual mindset. Second we will need to be lead by the spirit. Third we will need to understand who we are in Christ. With these three mindsets we can overcome fear in our lives. Before we get started this morning we need to clarify some things about fear. First, does fear belong in a believers life. You will hear it said that Fear is not from God and to an extent that is true. That saying comes from the scripture.
7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
This is taken out of context many times to say that we should not have fear at all. This is not the case though. Fear as I said earlier is simply information. Fear causes you to stop and to assess information. What the scripture is saying is that we do not live in a spirit of fear, a spirit of being paralyzed by phobias is what they scripture really says. To answer does fear belong in a believers life, we need to get more scriptural context.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
23 The fear of the Lord leads to life,
and whoever has it rests satisfied;
he will not be visited by harm.
You see there is an aspect where fear is a part of our lives and it helps us to pause and to take in all the information. What happens to most people though is that fear cripples them. When they process the information, they process it from a flesh mindset and they process it without the mindset of being lead by the spirit, and without understanding just how important they are to God. When they are up against a decision they find that moment of fear and they stay there. So this morning I am not telling you to lose all fear, what we are going to see today is how to overcome unrealistic fears that keep us trapped and outside of the will of God for our lives. There are some good fears. Such as the fear of snakes, we should not play with snakes, I know the Bible says that we are protected but it also says we should not tempt the Lord our God. So this morning we are going to go on a journey together of understanding how God wants us to process fears and to overcome them and not live in them. Turn with me in your bible to Romans 8:12-17
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Spiritual Mindset
Spiritual Mindset
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
The first structure in place for us to process and overcome fears is to have a spiritual mindset. What the Bible is telling us in Romans 8:12-13 is that we are no longer in debt to the flesh and the thoughs or ways of the flesh. You no longer need to process things from the aspect of the flesh. I do not work in anicdotal responses so when I hear people say this “don’t live in the flesh”, I struggle. It is an overarching statment with no real meat to it, it does not explain to me anything. That sounds nice and even probably would look cool on a t-shirt but what does it really mean? Here is what it means to no live in the flesh. In order to understand this we can look to the Scriptures. In the scriptures we can see that the living in the flesh can be physical, but it can also have a spiritual concept to it. Lets look first to the physical.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
In this scripure Paul is saying that the flesh is nothing more than his physical body. He is saying that because I am a human and I have flesh and bones I have to live here on this earth. If I want to be present with Jesus I have to leave this flesh and bone behind. So living in the flesh can be nothing more than actually being a human being. But that is not what is being talked about here, the scripture is not saying that you are not a debtor to living in your skin, if you are to be present here on earth you must remain in your body. This is a sad story for ghost hunters, I know. What does this mean for you? It means that God is not calling you to stop eating and drinking, to stop taking care of your phsical body, we are not being called to deny ourselves of things that are necessary for the flesh to continue to live. We do not need to prove faith by saying that we are spiritual and can live on just scripture. I am here to tell you that God could sustain you, it is unlikely though that your body would last too long without taking in nutrients of some sort. It reminds me of that story from one of the major hurricanes in Lousianna.
A man was riding out a Hurricance in Lousianna and the storm came in much worse than he expected. He had told his family that God was going to protect him and keep him safe so he did not evacuate. The water made its way up and forced the man and his dog to the roof of their home. A boat came by and they crew tried to get the man in the boat but he refused saying that God was going to save him. The dog on the otherhand had no such faith and swam to the boat. A second boat came by the next day and the water was almost over the home. He said the same thing and sent the rescue team way. Later that day the water was over the roof top and he was clinging to the roof with just a few inches before it would be over his shoulders. A Helicopter came by and he told them, no God is going to save me. After the Helicopter left the man died and when he met God face to face he was frustrated. He said God, I thought you were going to save and protect me. God looked at the man and said, I sent 2 boats and a Helicopter, what else was I supposed to do.
So when we are looking at overcoming fear we are not told that we should ignore the fact that we are flesh and bones and that we have a body that we should honor as a gift from God. So overcoming fear does not mean jumping off a cliff without a parachute and trusting that God is going to stop you from dying at the bottom. Overcoming fear is not sticking your head in an Alligator’s mouth and trusting God to keep the animal from ripping you apart. So what is overcoming the flesh and being of a spiritual mindset?
We are going to look again to Paul because he seems to have this writing where he goes from writing about the flesh from a physical standpoint and from a spiritual standpoint. So look with me in Philippians.
2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—
Look at what he says here. Paul is telling the believers that those who thing that mutilating their flesh by being circumcised will get them to glory, they are wrong. He says circumcision is a spiritual mindset and that the believers in Chrsit are the circumcision. Paul is taking us to a place of thinking about the flesh as out bodies to a place of woshiping and living for the glory of Jesus in our bodies. In the absense of the living for and worshiping Christ in our bodies, we are just mutilating the flesh. There is no benefit to doing things to the flesh to look as faithful followers of God if you are not living for or worshiping God. So not living by the flesh is this mindset that all I do should be for the glory of God. Living in the flesh is to do all things for ourselves. To overcome fear we must understand that in a place of worshiping God and glorifying God we are protected, both in spirit and in the flesh. I have some scripture to prove this.
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. 20 And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21 Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. 22 Because the king’s order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”
26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 27 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.
Fear is overcome not when you decide to do something crazy and out of this world. Fear is overcome when you get yourself to a place of Worship in Christ and understand that your primary objective is honoring God. This mindset of being in a place of constant worship and honor of God is what removes you from living in the flesh. Not living in the flesh is not to remove things that God gave to us to enjoy and eating crackers and water and abandoning all the wonderful things that God has created for us, but it is a place of constant worship to God. To overcome fear you must be of a spiritual mindset. You must also be lead of the spirit.
Lead by the Spirit
Lead by the Spirit
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
The spirit of God does not lead you to a place of living in fear. You see what we know now is that fear is a good thing. It can be fear of God, it can be fear that causes us to pause and to undertand wether or not where we are was because of a mindset of the flesh or a spiritual mindset. We can also overcome fear by listening and following the spirit of God. When you are of a spiritual mindset you will still have fears and you will need to still evaluate. When you evaluate the situation one of the questions is, did God lead me here. Did the Spirit of God bring me to this place. If the Sprirt of God really lead me here then there is nothing to fear because the Spirit was sent to grow me in my sonship of the Father. What areas in your life are you anxious about and fearful about? What things are you at a standstill on and fearful to move because you cannot overcome the anxiety. The first thing you need to ask yourself is, was I lead here by the spirit of God. If you were not lead there by the spirit of God you have many reasons to be fearful. and to consider your next moves. When the spirit of God leads you somewhere you can be confident in where he has lead you. The spirit of God may lead you to some prety scary places, but you will not have to stay paralyzed in fear becasue He will strengthen you. Do you remember the first thing that happened when the Israelites left Egypt?
1 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. 3 For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’
God lead them to a place where He knew Pharoah would persue them. They were past that point and God made them go back. What in the World! Whats worse, God lead them to a place of being trapped look.
10 When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
So here they are the Spirit of God lead them here and now they are paralyzed in fear with no where to go. Are you in that place in your life? You listened to God and you followed His spirit and now nothing is working out at all and you are just ready to go back to being a slave. Well that is not where this story ends.
19 Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, 20 coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 22 And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 23 The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24 And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, 25 clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.”
If you are lead by the Spirit of God you will never have to fear even when the walls seem to be falling in on you. Being of a spirtual mindset and seeking to Worship and Honor God in all that you do will allow you to overcome fear, following and trusting the Spirit will bring you to the next level of overcoming fear. What are you living in fear for in your life if you are listening to the voice of God? Just like God sent His spirit to deliver the Israelites, His spirit is leading you to a place of overcoming this world, are you listening and follwing His spirit? Lastly today the scripture gives us the greatest reason that we can overcome fear. The greates tool n overcoming fear is to understand who we are in Christ.
Who we are in Christ
Who we are in Christ
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
I was going to try to give you some cute story here or play a funny video, but I think the scripture does just fine on its own. We can overcome fear beacuse we are children of God. The spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God, if we are children of God then we are heirs of God and if heirs we are fellow heirs with Christ. We can understand the suffering and the pain in this world that we will experience because our fellow heir Jesus suffered it. We can walk thorugh pain and though fearful situations because with Jesus God overcame death! Doesnt that make our fears seem a little silly? If I think of the things I am fearful of.
Losing my family
Ridicule
Lack of success
Lack of finances
Physical pain
The list goes on an on, what are your fears? Is any one of them worse than death? When I compare my fears to death I find myself saying well I guess I can handle some riddicule as long as I don’t die. What are you fearful of? Jesus walked to the cross without fear, not without a desire to not do it, but without fear. Why because He knew that God was going to come through. Jesus went where the Spirit lead Him and did what God asked of Him, because He knew that He was special to the Father. Do you understand that about yourself today? You are not just another person in a crowd of millions. God know’s your name! He cares deeply for you! God knows about you, everything about you. You do not have to fear because for His son God overcame death and you are His son so what will He not overcome for you? We can overcome fear becasue we are special so special to God. He loves us, oh how He loves us! There is no fear for those who are found to be sons and daughters of the most high King, He has already overcome the worst thing that can happen to us, what else is there to fear?
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
18 and I will be a father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
We can put our faith in God because we are His children and He will overcome all things for us.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Are you tired of living in fear? Turn it over to God today. Follow His word and understand that you can infact overcome fear.
