Battling Fear

Fear is real

One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, "Mommy, will you stay with me all night?" Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, "I can’t dear. I have to sleep in Daddy’s room." A long silence followed. At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, "The big sissy!"

Anyone who says that are not afraid of anything is probably most afraid of someone knowing what they are afraid of

Fear is an emotion- it was given to us by God for a reason

Fear is a God-given alarm system to trigger our hearts to pay attention

Physical protection- driving too fast, dangerous animal, etc.

To direct us towards God- shows us areas of our lives where we do not fully trust God as our Lord

There is positive fear and negative fear

Positive fear is a respect and honor that produces reverence or respect

1 Peter 2:17 “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

Negative fear produces terror and dread

1 Samuel 28:5 “When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.”

2 Timothy 1:7 “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”

Spirit- the thing that gives a person life and personality

God does not want fear to rule us, define us, or direct us. Not a fearful disposition \

He was a professional thief. His name stirred fear as the desert wind stirs tumbleweeds. He terrorized the Wells Fargo stage line for thirteen years, roaring like a tornado in and out of the Sierra Nevada’s, spooking the most rugged frontiersmen. In journals from San Francisco to New York, his name became synonymous with the danger of the frontier. During his reign of terror between 1875 and 1883, he is credited with stealing the bags and the breath away from twenty-nine different stagecoach crews. And he did it all without firing a shot.

His weapon was his reputation. His ammunition was intimidation.

A hood hid his face. No victim ever saw him. No artist ever sketched his features. No sheriff could ever track his trail. He never fired a shot or took a hostage.

He didn’t have to. His presence was enough to paralyze.

Black Bart. A hooded bandit armed with a deadly weapon. What was his deadly weapon? One word, it was FEAR! As it turns out, he wasn’t anything to be afraid of, either. When the hood came off, there was nothing to fear. When the authorities finally tracked down the thief, they didn’t find a bloodthirsty bandit from Death Valley; they found a mild-mannered druggist from Decatur, Illinois. The man the papers pictured storming through the mountains on horseback was, in reality, so afraid of horses he rode to and from his robberies in a buggy. He was Charles E. Boles – the bandit who never once fired a shot, because he never once loaded his gun. Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story; (New York, NY: Bantam, 1977) Page 117

Fear is rooted in a lack of trust

Fear is the boundary around our idols.

1 John 4:18 “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.”

Anxiety is a faint heart's expression of a lack of trust in God’s goodness and control." — John Piper

Fear can be a diagnostic tool. Showing us where we need to submit to God

How we battle fear

Stand against the “what ifs”

Isaiah 41:10 “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

God did not promise that nothing bad would happen.

This is where many Christians miss the mark, they think that if something has gone wrong God has failed.

I am your God

As long as we trust in him nothing can overthrow him

Our God is what has the chief seat of our heart

We choose what is our God- our fear or Jesus

I will strengthen you

Not that it wont be hard- but that God will be stronger

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

I will help you

Snake in the brick

Azar- run to help

Our fear can cause us to run from God who is coming to deliver us

I will uphold you

Kids when they are scared

Tamack- to hold up

When you feel like your footing is slipping or your strength is gone, tamak reminds us that our security doesn't depend on how tightly we hold onto God, but on the fact that His right hand is actively holding us up.

You are not holding onto hope- hope is holding onto you!

Practice Divine replacement

Ironic process theory

Telling someone not to think about something instantly makes them think about that thing- its how the human brain processes information

By telling ourselves not to fear or worry about something we usually instantly create anxiety about that thing

Imagine you have built your life on a foundation of fear or anxiety. If you remove one of the bricks and leave a space one of the other blocks is going to slide into its place. Divine replacement puts a piece of Scripture in its place to rebuild a new foundation piece by piece.

The Fear Brick: "What if I fail or can't provide?"

The Vacuum (Failed Attempt): "I need to stop worrying about money." (Result: hyper-focus on money).

The Divine Replacement Brick: Seating Philippians 4:19 or Matthew 6:33 directly into that slot, consciously trading the panic thought for the promise of provision every time the trigger fires

Write an anti-terror Testimony

Driving to Ellie’s house- use GPS

Fear will often cripple your future by distorting your past.

Selectively pulling up the past failures and filtering out the victories

Reminds you of every time you have felt alone, powerless, or voiceless

We are told around 300 times in the Bible to “remember the Lord”

Don’t chance it- write the testimony and etch it on your heart!