The Deception of Fear

Good morning Hope Valley family I'm Andrew one of the pastors here and today I get the privilege of finishing our sermon series called THIS IS US.

Where we have shown how our lives are living letters of Gods people coming to Know Trust and Follow Jesus

During this series we have heard about shame and insecurity, but today we are going to talk about fear.

I understand that because fear affects everyone differently some of us have and may need to see a medical professional and even take medication for the different diagnosis.

I myself have suffered from anxiety and fear. Today I plan to be not only a living letter but an open book with many of the examples coming from my own life so enjoy.

Now There is a huge emphasis and recognition of mental health right now and rightly so.

And there are tons of books out there on the physical and emotional piece of fear but the spiritual is often left out. Thats the part I am going to focus

Now I admit, I will not cover every aspect of fear and worry, in this sermon today, but my goal is that you will begin to experience the peace of God as we explore this topic.

One more thing about mental health, I believe that God has blessed the hands and minds of actual professionals to deal with physical and emotional needs of this topic and people should go get help if they need to without shame.

But I also believe that the same God that has graced therapist, counselors, and doctors has graced us with a word of encouragement today, that i intend to steward.

So with that we are going to look at the new testament passage from the bible in Matthew 14: 22-33.

And it reads.

22' Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.

23And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,

24but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.

25And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

26But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.

27But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 28And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

29He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

31Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

32And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

33And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” '

Let's pray.

I got three points for us as we go through this text and they are

Scared. See. Sure

So let's dive into our first point What are you scared of?

Everybody say I ain't never scared. For those of you don't know that's another hip hop reference so everybody say I ain't never scared

Now I know for a fact that even though you said that,

that's not true, because for just about everybody in this room, everyone is scared or afraid of something or has been at some point.

Some of you know that Sabrina and I recently came back from celebrating our 10-year wedding anniversary in Puerto Rico.

Even fewer of you probably know about an incident that happened while we were in Puerto Rico.

Don't worry Sabrina I'm going to use the story That's bad on me not the one about you.

So one of the days while we were enjoying the nice Caribbean water my wife and I were trying to learn how to surf, but neither of us could muster any success.

But while we were out there, my wifes face quickly turned from joy to panic as she looked behind me. So when I turned around I witnessed a gigantic furry creature back arching out of the water and going back into the water, I also panicked.

And I did what any man who just rededicated his vows to his wife of 10 years would do. I ran towards the shore. Yes I did. Don't judge me. I was scared.

Plus we got 2 kids that needed a parent. It would be selfish to have them lose both parents. I would let them know how their brave mom was, as she fought that sea monster.

Now not even one second later from my selfish decision (because this happened so fast), my heart said dont forget your wife so I turned around to push my wife who was on the surfboard back to shore.

But when I turned around to push her back the shore an ocean wave already had pushed her back in which meant that I was left out there with the creature all by myselt talk about utter fear.

I ran so hard coming out of those waves you would have thought i was david hasselhoff. (ask your nieghbor we got a multi generational congregation)

Now we would later find out that the creature that we were afraid of was a manatee and they're actually quite friendly and like to play with the humans as a joke.

But at that time when the incident occurred, I was fresh off watching Kong versus Godzilla on the plane ride there and in my mind that was Godzilla mixed with Kong coming out of the water, thats why I was fearful.

So lets talk about fear.

At vs. 22 of our scripture we see that Jesus had just finished feeding the 5,000

And as he is doing the dismissing of the crowd he sends his disciples out onto the water by themselves OR so we think, and now they're in the middle of a storm.

As this moment unravels, Jesus comes walking out to them on the sea that is splashing back and forth, and the winds are blowing.

And in the midst of this they see this figure coming towards them, and because their perception was off they didn't know it was actually Jesus.

And it says they that they were “terrified”, they thought it was a ghost, and they “cried out in fear”.

Fear is defined as an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.

And usually that awareness leads to a response that engages our fight or flight which is where you get the rapid breathing increased heartbeat blood flow going to the major muscle groups.

Now the degree of our response is determined by the degree of how we perceive that fear. Which leads us to what terrified is.

Terrified means to extreme fear.

So it's safe to say that during this moment the disciples were very afraid.

Some of us here today some of you online may be very afraid.

This new COVID variant looks like it's about to wreak havoc on us again who knows if we're heading towards new lockdowns (I pray not),

The people who have been vaccinated are starting to question are they even safe anymore.

Financial uncertainty is increasing because of layoffs and some businesses maybe looking at this and saying I can't take another lockdown.

Then we got global warming earthquakes floods solar flares, forest fires, Is this the end?

Maybe you are not as apocalyptic as that, but for you there is the fear being rejected and not being accepted,

Fear that this church experience will turn out like the last church experience and I will leave empty.

Fear of not being loved.

And if we allow this fear to take full effect in our lives we become paralyzed, and our joy is stolen from us.

Because fear causes us to cower in on ourselves to feel safe, no longer caring about anyone else.

Remember the story about Adam and Eve after Eve messed up (after the both sinned) the bible says they were afraid

And what did they do? They hid

But not only that, Adam throws his wife right underneath the bus when they were getting in trouble. He says she did it, the wife you gave me did it.

Self preservation.

So What does our self preservation look like in our own lives?

Well it could look like us literally locking ourselves in our houses afraid to go anywhere.

When the jobs and finances are in question we stop giving for fear that our finances are going to run out.

We begin to take on more than we should, because our fear makes us try to sure up our life with our own two hands;

I'm going to make sure that I survive, that Im safe.

Truth is we cant save ourself or keep ourselves safe, but we think we can because we can control it.

But our desire to control may be being influenced by some stuff we are actually idolizing.

And our fear comes from losing that stuff.

You want to see what shear fear looks like right now, tell a social media influencer that they are losing their followers and watch all out chaos ensue.

Its not just social media (i dont care about social media) Jobs, money, houses, kids, family, life are all things that could become idols

And all things we are fighting to save for fear of losing it.

We have put greater VALUE on things and people than we have put on God.

Interestingly enough, Jesus says “For whoever would save his live will lose it, but whoever loses his for my sake will find it.”

Seems like we are going about this all wrong.

Now I am not trying to throw shade on any of you if you have done this.

I have literally in my past (a couple months ago) strapped my family career finances on my back and said I got this.

God you can come along and it'd be nice to have you shine some light on this but I got this I am controlling this I'm in control and when I can control everything I feel safe.

But it was a false sense of security, it was false safety. And that false sense of security often comes from us grabbing the closest thing you can control when fear sets in.

You want to know what you're afraid of?

Look at your life, and see what you're holding so tight to and what you're so protective of and that's where you're scared of losing, thats what your fearful of. (I'll say that again.)

Now this fear that I have defined and I've been talking about, desires to control you.

Desires to turn you away from the one who loves you and cares about you.

But there is another fear that desires to give you freedom that desires believe it or not to give you peace.

And we are going to talk about that as we go back into the text, with point #2 What Do You See?

So we picking up at verse 26 and it says “but when the disciples SAW him walking on the sea they were terrified, and they said it is a ghost and then they cried out in fear. Immediately, Jesus spoke to them saying take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid.”

Verse 28 “And Peter answered him Lord if it is you command me to come out to you on the water.” He said come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he SAW the wind he was afraid and began to sink, and he cried out Lord save me.

You yourself might be in a panic right now, in need of saving.

You might be thinking about all the things that you're about to lose, because of your life's situations.

All the things that you might have to give up

How your life is changing by making a decision for Christ

Or maybe you're thinking about all the worries I brought up this morning and the fact that these things are happening in the world and you don't know how this is going to impact your life.

And no one knows how fearful you actually are right now no one sees you.

But that's not true. The one who promises to never leave your side, and to always hear your cry, HE sees you right now.

So let's look at the text again.

It says, Jesus IMMEDIATELY responds

Not a while later, not so months later, not years later BUT immediately responds and in springs into action but something prevented the relief.

Something prevented the peace that surpasses all understanding from overtaking the disciples.

That's something was fear.

You see Jesus responds Immediately with all power and authority.

How do I know this? Because he says it is “I”.

And why does that matter well after looking at that word in the greek (no i dont understand greek, but i got concordances, commentary, and translators) and this phrase “it is I”, is another form of “it is I AM”.

And this is important because if we go back to Exodus we see “I AM” is how God chooses to describe himself.

By saying I AM, he was literally proclaiming I have all power, I have all authority, there is no one greater, I am bigger, I am stronger than your fear. DO NOT BE AFRAID FOR I AM WITH YOU.

So why didn't the disciples rejoice in praise and thankfulness that the Lord had come to save them,

because their perception of Jesus was off.

They didn't see him that well, their vision was blurry, because they said “it is a ghost”,

BUT Jesus tried to adjust their focus and said “it is I AM”.

And with that proclamation their vision should come into focus because they had already been in a similar situation where Jesus was asleep in the boat and a storm arose and he said peace be still, that literally happened a couple chapters before this

So by this time they should have been good to go as soon as they saw Jesus walking on the water, they should have felt “we going to be all right”

But they didn't because they didn't see him with all power and authority just yet. They didnt FEAR him yet.

And we do the exact same thing to Jesus

It never fails as soon as God brings me through one storm, the next one arises and I become fearful and say How I am going to get through this.

It doesnt matter what God brought me through before when I get to the next challenge, Im always afraid.

Fear makes us forget all the evidence that tells us he will never leave us or forsake us, and shows us that we are alone and hopeless.

Fear makes our problems bigger than the creator of the universe.

Fear makes our circumstances bigger than the Great I AM.

Fear clouds our perception.

And if your perception is off it can make things difficult to walk to drive to move in any direction.

Because perception deals with our ability to see, hear, or become aware of what we think is occurring before us.

When your perception is off things will appear bigger than they are and others seem smaller than they should be.

Real bad perception can even distort the image all together.

And when we have been deceived by our perception, we can rob God of all his glory, power, and majesty by fearing the wrong thing.

When fear sets in your rational mind leaves you,

Your instincts kick in, and you won't see lifelines right there at your side, just like you won't see the comforter has drawn near to bring you peace.

Some people say, One of the hardest people to save is somebody who's drowning.

The reason is is because fear has kicked in their life is in danger and they begin to flail their arms and legs wildly (self preservation).

And it has been known that drowning people who are in full panick, trying to save themselves ACTUALLY prevent the rescuer were from coming in to save them.

Now hear me clearly, OUR rescuer (Jesus) is not stopped by anything (yall know the song no mountain he wont climb up, wall he wont kick down) BUT he looks for our cooperation.

He looks for our surrender. Our admittance that we cannot save ourselves, that we dont got this.

So what kind of fear should we have?

There is Scared fear and Sacred fear.

Scared fear is to be thrown into a state of fright or panic

Sacred fear is to to be deemed holy Worthy of respect and awe.

Scared fear will cause you to cower in terror

Sacred fear will cause you to bow in awe of an awesome creator

Scared fear would cause you to preserve and control

Sacred fear will cause you to recognize and release to the one who holds all things together.

What makes the difference, is What You See.

Well we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

One of the many reasons that we stay stressed out, worried, and fearful is because we're trying to stay focused on the regrets of yesterday and the fears of tomorrow

So much so that we can't focus on the path of our savior right in front of us.

When I set my mind on Jesus and what he wants for me, the less I have time to worry about in my earthly trials.

The more of God we get filled with, The more that worry and fear has to leave.

Gods presence leaves no room for fear, For his perfect love drives out fear.

Now how do we get filled up with more God?,

We get more God by reading our bible, praying, serving with one another in community.

And as our focus shifts to our Lord and Savior, and we began to see Him with proper regard exalted above every name

Then the fear that has been plaguing our minds and sleep, begins to dissipate,

Because our focus begins to come in line with the one who we should fear

Now some of you might be tracking and saying, I think I'm supposed to look and follow after Christ

Others of us might be saying, I know I'm supposed to follow Christ BUT What do I do if I'm still scared?

I recently heard an illustration a pastor gave about his own daughter.

He said that his daughter woke up in the middle of the night one night, and ran in his bedroom, yelling daddy daddy I'm scared.

I think somebody might be trying to break in. And this pastor tries to encourage his daughter by saying well you know your okay baby.

I got my two guns right here to protect us and his daughter looks at him and says I know Daddy but I'm still scared.

And I love that illustration because his daughter is a lot like all of us if we really admit.

I believe in God and I kinda of revere him as all powerful but when my fear shrinks Him down I become unsure.

There is REAL DOUBT.

Peter also experiences this in verse 29 when he needed to get to Jesus in his own frightful situation

He knows that's where safety is his, where his surety is

So Peter ask can I come out there?

Now Jesus knows the storm is occurring and but allows him to come to him anyway, because Jesus all holds all things together

So Peter begins to walk out on the water

And as long as he sees Jesus he's walking on water, as long as he keeps his savior in proper perspective he's good

But the moment he turns and sees that wave (which were there all along) they begin to be his focus.

He then begins to go thru an anxiety cycle of how big the wave is, and what will happen if it takes him under, look how fast I'm sinking, I'm doomed and he begins to doubt if he still safe.

Jesus is still right there before him and the storm is still all around him, but now he is double-minded he doesnt know who to trust.

And lots of people harp on the fact that Jesus says ye of little faith,

But Peter was the only one who should faith stepping out of the boat that was presumably keeping them safe

But the Andrew commentary (yes I giving you my own commentary youll see it in 30 yrs) thinks the heavier rebuke is about the doubt,

You of little faith almost seems like a father talking to their child you poor thing

BUT the correction come at “Why did you doubt?”

Doubt is the feeling of uncertainty, a lack of conviction.

Doubt is a tool used by our enemy to cause us to question God has motives.

And when allow doubt to sink in, we are robbed of the peace that we have knowing that God is in control.

When my oldest was trying to learn how to swim, I would get in the water and I would say son come to me, I got you

I could see he was scared so I try to encourage him that I am right here I can catch and I could pull him up if he goes under.

But he's terrified and he's making this big scene at the pool screaming, flailing his arms

And I'm trying to talk to him but he can't hear me because fear has set in

When I finally get his attention I said son stand up.

Because he didn't realize that the water he was standing in was shallow enough that he could actually stand up.

But even more horrifying than his fear making the water deeper than it was,

Was the fact that his fear caused him to DOUBT me and overrode his ability to normally trust me .

To normally trust me not dropping him if I was carrying him,

To normally trust me to put food on the table for him to eat every night,

To normally trust me to put a roof over his head.

Doubt will make you say I'm just not so sure anymore.

It will make you say “God I got feeling that something is changing in my heart and I know I need to trust you

But my friends are leaving me now, They say I've changed and I don't know if it's worth it

Are you worth it?

OR maybe God I've been following you for a long time

And you provided for me time and time again but this time for whatever reason seems bigger than all the times before, and I'm not so sure you will come through this time.

Will you come through for this time?

Which brings us to our final point Sure.

We can be sure.

When Peter saw Jesus from inside the boat he had correct perception of who Jesus is in his life

But as soon as he turned to look at the waves, Jesus was now in his peripheral and he couldn't see him clearly.

And because the waves were the most significant thing, he knows he cant save himself,

Because there's nothing he can grab onto, no friends nearby, nothing he control,

he begins to sink in his despair.

BUT even though Peter cannot see Jesus because his fear has caused him to focus on his pending demise.

He surrenders in heart there is no other way,

That the only who could save him was Jesus ( cause he didn't cry out to the other disciples or his brother).

Naw he said LORD (which means something that has power and authority) Save Me.

Peter knew that if he cried out to God, the all powerful everlasting love of God would hear the cries of his people and be mighty to save.

Vs 31 says IMMEDIATELY Jesus reached out his hand and took hold of him.

Now we don't actually know how far Peter got but we can use our biblical imagination and just say he got halfway

Because in his mind it was still some distance to be covered in order for him to fear fear because he was not with Jesus.

But where WE see Jesus from afar and distant, our Savior has already drawn near and is close

Our shepard actually never left our side. Psalm 23 says Thou I walk….FOR YOU ARE WITH ME.

We are never alone or forsaken.

You HAVE NOT drifted so far your unsavable.

Your fear or worry DOES NOT trump the mighty power of God.

Now if you're saying Ps. Andrew I dont feel you answered what I should do if I’m still scared..that was intentional.

Of course you're still scared. There's a huge pending decision on whether or not to step out of your safety boat.

This is our faith walk.

I'm still scared at times.

You are not alone if you have experienced and are experiencing fear. Many people before you have as well

The disciples were afraid as Jesus tells them hes about to be crucified,

And because he sees their fear he tells them let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me.

But even after that, the disciples were afraid again and went into hiding right after Jesus death,

So what does Jesus do, he appears to them and says “peace be with you” which said another way means DO NOT BE AFRAID.

The phrase in the Bible Do Not Be Afraid, For I AM with you, has been repeated throughout the entire Bible,

And it is just as much an Encouragement as it is a Command.

But because we struggle to follow any of the commands given to us as Gods people,

We must look to Jesus the perfecter of our faith, the finisher of our faith,

To walk out our faith.

The question IS NOT will you be afraid!

BUT WHEN you get scared what do you do?

We don't tell ourselves don't be afraid over and over again. If anything that makes us more afraid. (kids dont look)

But instead of looking at our fear and what it can do to us,

We set our eyes on Jesus and what he has already done for us.

So even beyond Jesus going to the cross dying for our sins and reconciling us back unto God.

We get the extra benefit of HIM sending us the comforter in the holy Spirit

And giving us peace.

But the peace that he leaves us with in John chapter 14,

Is not one of the world. He says I do not give you peace as the world would give.

The world would say if you want peace try this meditation app, get quiet, breathe and get away from everyone.

BUT People with kids understand that that's just not enough

Because not even the best noise canceling headphones in the world can tune out screaming and squealing kids.

NO the peace that God intends for us to have

Is a peace that ensures our standing with him, no matter if we're surrounded by an army, a storm, or even a virus

That there is no one who could take us out of his hand.

That if He’s unmovable, Im unmovable

Because he is the name above all names, and Im his child.

Man I’m going to go long, but hear this. (I’m closing)

My dad used to always tell me you can't get scared until I get scared

And I use it on my kids today. They hate it. Cuz they say Dad you never get scared.

And I do this so they will know, that when their father is with them, They have nothing they need to be afraid of.

The final two verses of our passage of scripture says

"and when they got into the boat the wind ceased and those in the boat worshiped him saying TRULY you are the son of God."

That word Truly means surety, surely, certainly, indeed, without DOUBT.

When we stop allowing fear and worry to minimize our God We can see him clearly in all of his greatness.

A king, a savior, a father, a friend worthy of all our praise.

And as we go through each fear, each storm, each challenge with Jesus following his ways and spending time with him in prayer and scripture

We began to KNOW for ourselves, that there is nothing we need to be afraid of

Because God is with me, and he is the only one I need to fear.

Will you exercise your faith and step out of your self preservation boat and come to him?

Will you take a step towards Jesus today?

And if you get off track in the midst of it

Cry out to Jesus when those circumstances cause you to be afraid.

Cry out to the only one who can save us, to the only one who immediately responds because Hes already right there.