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Have you ever noticed how much emotions affect our lives? Consider how love affects us. Love produces emotions that influence our feelings, behavior and even the look on our faces. The same is true of fear. Fear produces emotions that affect our thoughts, conduct and physical health. Fearful apprehensions have the power to hold us back. Certainly, fear holds some of us back from skydiving, fear prevents some of us from watching scary movies. Fear can also affect how we live our normal everyday lives. If a parent is afraid of losing their relationship/friendship with their child, they may fear disciplining that child. If you are afraid of losing a friend, then you are less likely to stand up to that friend when they do something wrong; most likely you will say nothing or you will join them. You may desire to bring God more into your school, your job, your friendships or even your marriage, but you don’t know how the other person will react or if you will get into trouble. So, your fear of the unknown causes you to keep God boxed up. You may fear speaking your mind because your spouse or parent or boss upon hearing your differing view point will rip into you. Their cutting words are so hurtful, they cut deep to your core being; so, you are afraid to speak out and your fear causes your silence. Living in a state of fear puts up barriers in our lives that we learn to accept and even embrace. We begin living life around these barriers; these barriers determine what we do, when and how we speak, where we go; these barriers erected by our fears are just part of life. We begin to live in a bubble determined by certain fears. By living in this fear bubble, we box God in; yes, we bring God into our bubble or our box. We are willing to listen to God provided that he is reasonable considering our barriers, our limitations, that is just who we are. We all fear things, and these fears create life barriers from doing, acting, saying things. The problem with living in a bubble determined by our fears is that we cannot fully listen and obey God because if he calls us to say or do something we are afraid of, then our fear stops us from obeying God. Our fears determine our boundaries of obedience. We will obey and follow God anywhere within our fear bubble, but not outside of it.
God has a zero tolerance for fear – God’s command is absolute and unqualified “do not fear” – we are commanded to not fear at all; He does not say only fear this much, or be afraid only so much. The command is fear nothing other than God himself. Fears do not get to determine your direction, fears do not get to determine what you say, fears do not get to determine your relationships, and certainly fears do not get to determine the degree of your obedience. See, when it comes to boxing God in certain spatial limits, that is not acceptable. There are no limits placed on the one true God. God is contained in no box, he desires to break out of your fear bubble and he wants to free you from your fears to live the life He desires to give you rather than the life that your fears limit you to living. To show us how much God hates for you to live in your fear bubble and bring him into that limited life, God made a staggering promise. Isaiah 41:10 “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” If you grab hold of this promise, you will begin to pop the fear bubble and live in God’s freedom. Today, we come to part 3 in our series – When Fear Has You In Its Grip. I invite you to turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 41.
All of our relationships are impacted by our fear bubble. Our fears determine what we say, how we act, what we will confront as wrong, and how we cower and run away. When we are afraid of losing a friend, then we will not say certain things due to our fear. If that friend is hurting someone else, we may not say much so as not to lose the friendship or make them upset. If we are afraid of losing a job, then we will not stand up to an unethical boss. If we are afraid that a fight could hurt our marriage, then we will not have difficult yet vital discussions. If we are afraid that bringing up spiritual matters will negatively impact a relationship, then we leave God out of it. Our fears help us to maintain what we want or what we think is important – if our friend, our job, our relationship is what is important then our fears keep us from doing anything to hurt or lose what we think is valuable. But, what we all naturally have seen in our lives is that if there is a guarantee of a better job, then we will be willing to stand up to our boss; if there is a better friend guaranteed, we will be willing to stand up to that unkind, unloving friend. Our fears can be overcome only when we feel sure that there is something better guaranteed than what we are about to lose or give up.
God gives us FIVE reasons to overcome our fears; God gives us five pillars to stand on to know that there is something better guaranteed. With these five reasons, we do not have to let fear box us in; instead, we can confront our fear because He guarantees something better. The five pillars of fearlessness are found in verse 10: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (1) God is with me; (2) God is my God; (3) God will strengthen me; (4) God will help me; (5) God will uphold me. The key to overcoming your fears is to know the five pillars, believe them, trust them, and depend on them. God commands us to have no fear. There is no amount of fear that is acceptable; God has zero tolerance for human fear. If you are willing to consider and challenge your fears, God promises you and guarantees you that He is with you, He is your God, He will strengthen you, He will help you and He will uphold you. Is this guarantee better than what your fears are causing you to keep?
Our fears are strong and they are firmly in place. To uproot and overthrow our fears will certainly take more than words, even words of the Bible. To face our fears will take more than a hollow promise.
What would it take to look our fears straight in their eyes and walk right over them? I would have to be certain of the person who made me the promise of something better. We would not confront our fear of standing up to a bad boss with the promise of a new job if the promise came from a mere employee with no power to hire us. We would need the promise from the boss or employer of the new job. We will only confront our fears if we know who makes this promise, if we believe the promise maker, and more importantly if we have a trusting relationship with this promise maker. vv.8-9 “But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, 'You are my servant'; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.”
• The promise God made to overcome fear by guaranteeing something better was first given to Israel
Israel was being trodden down in captivity by its enemies. Israel was despised and scorned, by its captors. Israel was freed from Egyptian slavery, traveled through the wilderness for 40 years, then victoriously conquered the Promised Land of Canaan. God kept encouraging and warning Israel to obey, but they developed fears living in Canaan. They feared other gods, they feared not marrying Canaanite men and women, they feared the people more than God; they developed fears of living in this new land and not living by their customs and traditions. Because they began to develop the Canaanite fears or unbelievers’ fears, their fears created a fear bubble. God did not want them to live in this fear and more than that God was not willing to live in that fear bubble with them. Because of their fear bubbles, they disobeyed God over and over and over. They lived lives of continual disobedience as lived by Canaanite fears. We believers are not to fear what unbelievers fear. Since God is unwilling to live in a fear bubble and he is unwilling to allow his children to stay living in fear bubbles, God will take measures to bust your bubble. He busts your bubble because He loves you. To break their fear bubble, God permitted enemies like the Babylonians and Syrians conquer Israel and take them into captivity. After years and years of living as captives under their enemies, God comes to them and makes them this promise: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” In the midst of terrible times, when their lives are a wreck, when the world is crashing all around them, God gives them this incredible command connected with the promise.
Would you like this promise? (1) God is your God as He is over you; (2) God is with you by your side; (3) God strengthens you from the inside; (4) God will help you by being all around you; (5) God will uphold you from underneath. If you want this promise, if this is valuable to you, then what you must want is not a hollow promise but something with teeth; you want a relationship with the promise maker so you know the promise will be kept.
God’s promise to empower you to bust out of the fear bubble is rooted in his relationship with you. This promise is not available to everyone; God does not make this promise to just anyone. This promise is only for certain people; this promise is quite valuable. This promise is only for those people who have been chosen by God, who see themselves as servants of the one true God and who are also God’s friends. vv.8-9 “But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, 'You are my servant'; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.”
First – God’s Chosen Ones – The Bible speaks of God choosing a person. In choosing, God is unconditionally electing His children. It is an unconditional choice because there is no condition that man or woman must meet before God chooses them. God’s choice was made before the world was created. The names of his future children were written in the book of life. Ephesians 1:4-5 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”
Second – this great promise is for God’s Servants – God said the person he makes this promise for is his servant. Are you God’s servant? A servant does not do his own will. A servant who did his own whims and wishes would soon be fired. Do you take guidance from the Master’s mouth? Have you submitted your will to God’s will?
Third – the great promise is for God’s Friends – God said the person he makes this promise for is his friend. God called Abraham his friend, and God called David his friend. Are you God’s friend? Do you spend time with God in prayer and in his word? Do you listen to God’s counsel? Do you act like a friend to God?
Jesus puts this all together – God’s chosen child, God’s servant and God’s friend - in 1 NT text. If you want the promise of God, and you want the promise to be rooted in relationship so that you can trust the promise and the promise maker, then consider John 15:15-16 “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”
In this text, Jesus says we can determine if we are the chosen servant-friends by evaluating whether Jesus is our vine, we are his branch and we remain or live with him. We remain in Jesus if we humble ourselves in servant like status to choose his will over our will, obey him rather than ourselves. If you have this relationship with Jesus, then you are more than a servant, you are God’s chosen friend. Currently, we live in our bubble of fears where our fears dictate what we can and cannot do. The times we break out of our fear bubbles is when we have something better guaranteed. If our fear is losing our job, the only time we will stand up to our boss is when we have a better job lined up. Whatever your fears are, you can now face them; you can now bust that fear bubble; you no longer have to obey the barriers of fear in your life because you have a guarantee, a better promise; and, you can trust this promise because your are God’s chosen-friend. With such a great relationship to God, then you can know, trust and have confidence in God’s promise. (1) God is your God as He is over you; (2) God is with you by your side; (3) God strengthens you from the inside; (4) God will help you by being all around you; (5) God will uphold you from underneath.
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