The Real Horror!

Ever watch a horror film?  I am frustrated to admit that I have seen my share.  Many people are fascinated with them, even many believers.  They watch evil and death triumphing over life as a form of entertainment.  But it’s no screaming matter when the nightmare is actually chasing you down in real life!

There is not much more frightening in life than facing down something much bigger, stronger and more capable than you, a goliath that will take your very life if you stop to face it.  When faced with the option of confronting a “goliath” we usually opt to run away.  So we run and run and run from it each day.  Burying ourselves in work, friends, religion, habits, even addictions.  You name it we have some way of escaping.  And it’s often that tendency to run that causes our ultimate demise.  (Ever seen those animal shows when prey tries to run away?)  Eventually it will catch up to us, eventually we will tire out.  It’s just a matter of time.  “Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall.”  (Isaiah 40:30)

See we run so hard because we know that by definition a “goliath” is unbeatable and given the chance to catch up to us, it will kill us.  On our own we don’t stand a chance!  “Boy Pastor, that’s encouraging!”  Well, actually it is…but I will get to that in a moment.  Think about it this way, if you had a ring side seat at the David and Goliath fight, would you have put your money on Goliath because of his size, strength and confidence or on David because of his faith in God?

Now don’t cheat because you live in the 21^st century and know the end of the story, instead place yourself in that story at that time and ask yourself again who would you put money on?  The truthful answer is Goliath!  As I mentioned before a Goliath is a Goliath because it’s undefeated and there are no Cinderella stories on this page!

So let me ask you, what is your goliath?  That massive giant in your life that the moment you stop running it will take you down?  Is it a big lie you are living?   A marriage secretly failing?  Decisions from your past that haunt you?  What is it that unless you get God’s help it’s going to kill your reputation, your career, all you worked and strived all your life for?  Remember you can’t keep running forever, it’s time to face it.

Now that you are looking at your goliath, I want you to look past that giant and see a God standing over him.  That’s right, behind every goliath is God, waiting on us to stop running and face our biggest fear with His help.  “Stop running and start facing!” is what God says to you today.  That’s your first step to living without your goliath because with God’s help, the victory is assured.

[More Than Conquerors]  "What, then, shall we say in response to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?"  (Romans 8:31)

  

1. Identify and write a description of your Goliath. Now, describe your God. How is God bigger and more powerful than your giant? Practice boasting in your God this week. By faith, declare how awesome and powerful your God is.  My giant may be _____ but my  God is _________.

2. Honestly face your fears regarding your personal giant. What’s the worst that could happen if you turned and faced your giant? Now imagine God coming through for you. What would this look like? Personalize and pray Ephesians 1:18-20 regularly. Seek prayer support from your LifeGroup.

3. Learn to recognize the taunting voice of the enemy coming through your thoughts and through others. What lies is he telling you? Take these thoughts captive and replace them with God’s Truth. (see 2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

4.  Like David, write out your own declaration of victory (see 1 Samuel 17:45-46). Be bold. God has already given us the victory in Christ. (Romans 8:37) Speak daily this declaration out loud until your giant falls dead to the ground. Share with your LifeGroup how they can stand with you until the victory is won.

What is your Fear?

What is your fear?  Is it the fear of failure, the fear of embarrassment, the fear of rejection?  Jonathan’s dad, King Saul suffered from fear.  More specifically the fear of rejection, above all else he needed to be accepted and ultimately it destroyed him. Here is what he said when caught in the middle of this fear.

(1 Samuel 15:24)  “…I have sinned. I violated the LORD’s command…I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.”

See when rejection occurs a person puts up walls to prevent it from happening again.  And it’s these walls around your heart that make you unable to love and be loved.  Jonathan was King Saul’s son and experienced many of the same moments as his father, but you notice Jonathan does not have the same set of fears.  Instead he often is seen operating in faith that his God is better and bigger than his fears.  Jonathan is the embodiment of this following Scripture.

(Proverbs 28:14)  “Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.”

In my years as a pastor I have encountered many people with hard hearts, people with life experience producing a jaded tough skinned individual.  So it is wise to listen to the Bible when it tells us to keep our hearts tender.  Our tender heart opens an avenue for a close relationship with God and without it we will find ourselves lost and distant.  It also gives us the ability to love people, especially those that are unlovable!

To be honest I think we all have a wall of some sort surrounding our hearts.  So asking you and me to drop our walls and our guards does not mean you let people and life walk all over you.  As a matter of fact there was a quote I came across when I first started my pastorate that has helped me with this balance, “to survive in ministry (life), you have to have tough hide and a tender heart – and try not to get them reversed.”  I love that!

For us to be human and express the grace and love God has for broken people you and I need to be like that quote.  Here are a few ideas on how to keep this in balance.

1.  Say “no” to pleasing people.

Yeah I know, it’s an obvious point, but it’s tough.  Especially when every day you have to decide who you’re going to please.  The apostle Paul got a hold of this.

(Galatians 1:10)  “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

“Am I going to please people?” I have to remember that if I do, it’s a trap.  Now I am not telling you to be rude, but some of us are approval addicts. We are always wondering what other people are thinking and doing and if what we are doing is acceptable to them.  If you have to have someone else’s approval it can easily become a snare to you.  You may need to start the process of saying “no” to pleasing people and instead…

2.   Say “yes” to pleasing God.

Now Jesus said many things that still have the best minds of our day scratching their heads.  And one statement is recorded in John’s Gospel.

(John 5:30)  “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”

What did He mean?  I am certain this statement and it’s context of Kingdom principals has more to unpack than what I noticed.  Yet what we see on the surface is how to live our lives through the Jesus.  In essence Jesus is setting the example on where we get our personal satisfaction.  If He, being God, does not do things to please Himself, but instead to please Him who sent Him (I love that!) then we also should live only to please God, who has not only saved us, but also sent us!

Fear has a funny way of messing that up.  Many people that conquer their fears, whatever they might be, are people that find God as their focus.  They are living for an audience for One and instead of being distracted by the “what if’s” of life.  Pleasing God instead keeps you locked into the “what will be’s.”  Do this and the fears of life will start to melt away!

Do you please people? 

What ways do you recognize that pleasing people is natural in your life?

What is keeping you from pleasing God? 

How has your fears played a part in this?

Deception vs. Truth

We all have been deceived at some point.  Either by a slick salesman that got us to buy something we really did not want or need or by a good friend or family member that lied about something very personal.  There is no greater deception than fear.  Fear causes us to be tentative, reserved and focused on something that rarely comes to pass and never the way it is perceived.  Behind any deceptive moment is a fear.

Fear will roar as loud as it can, just like a lion, it will attempt to drown out all other messages including God’s truth.

What God says is truth.  But for most people it is easier to believe what we feel rather than what is true.  It’s easier to fear than to live with faith. Living by faith has everything to do with trusting God who you cannot see or touch.  That is faith.  Believing our feelings or our fear means that we will waver on the following question.

Will you chase your lions or will your lions chase you?  God’s truth will tell you chase down your lions no matter how loud they roar or how big they seem.  That is the faith that Benaiah lived when he jumped down into a pit and chased down his lion.  (2 Samuel 23:20)  Just like Benaiah and many other men and women that lived by faith you and I are a child of God.

(1 John 3:1)  “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

Fear messes with our feelings.  Lean on feelings and you will have problems.  God gives us truth to put our faith in. Fear cannot change the truth.  Believe what God says and don't allow fear to mess with your feelings any more.  You are a child of God.  Live it!

(John 1:12 NLT)  “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Fear Delievered

(James 2:23)  "and so it happened just as the Scriptures say:  "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith."  He was even called the friend of God."

Let me start off by stating a question.  “Why is it so hard to believe what God says is true?”  I have wrestled with this question either mentally or with my attitude for years.  One might think that as you get older your ability to trust in God grows with your age, but that is not always the case.  The reality is often it is just easier to live by what we feel rather than by Gods truth.  And somewhere between the two we pick which facts suit us best for our own self-preserving outcome.  I so wish what I just wrote was not true, but fear drives this reality.

As we all know so well, fears about life are very real and very vivid in our daily existence.  As a pastor and a father I see it often.  A fear of rejection that caused us to compromise, a fear of the unknown that causes us to doubt or a fear of embarrassment that caused us to lie.  We are constantly bombarded by fears and they affect our choices and our character.  Some fears are small, but some are larger than life itself.  One thing is sure, all fears have a shackling result.

Psalm 34:4 states “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”

Because fears are so controlling we forced to deal with them.  We seek someone or something to conquer them. Often where we go determines the outcome of fear’s control over our life.  We may have a good pep talk with ourselves, we may talk to our spouse, a friend at work or even a counselor or pastor.  But in the end we forget that only God can conquer all our fears. 

I sought the LORD….humm…gets me thinking.  How many times in the vivid midst of my fears have I sought the LORD?  Honestly, not enough.  I remember seeking God in my life during times of joy and victory and times of need and sorrow, but in times of racked, debilitating fear…not so much.

Something about fear diverts our passions away from the one who delivers from fear.  And the big truth is only God has the ability to deliver me from all my fears.  It’s in seeking the LORD only you and I will be delivered from ALL fear! 

One final thought….when something is delivered it’s transferred.  I when I order something online and it’s delivered to my front door the delivery company has ownership until it’s delivered.  Once I receive it at my front door, ownership is transferred and it’s now mine.  To be delivered from all your fears means you need to deliver or shall I say “offer” unto God all you are (fears and all).  Transfer ownership over to Him, let Him take on each and every fear.

“Heavenly Father I surrender all my fears (list each one here) into your hands today.  I transfer ownership of them..I do not own that fear anymore, instead I seek You for the answer and give you my whole heart today.  In Jesus Name…Amen”

Live In FEAR

^{What are you afraid of?  There are many fears in this world, way too many to list.  One study listed over 4,000 phobias that people live with each day.  Wow stinks to be that guy, ha!  Seriously we all have them, it almost seems to be human is to fear.}

Now some of my fears are realistic and some are unfounded.  I mean I don’t like snakes and that is a realistic fear, right?  They are slimy, sneaky, slithery … oh wait they actually aren’t slimy and I don’t think I can ever prove they are sneaky but they do slither.

And that is how fear works, it bases itself on some level of truth and then exaggerates the rest.  Fear has an uncanny ability to freeze my ability by forcing me to stare into a future of “what if’s” base on a past of “see that’s”.

Can I be honest here, one of my biggest fears is the presence of God.  Yep I fear God.  Now the Bible tells us “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding…” (Psalm 111:10) yet the fear the Bible speaks of is not trembling and groveling in horror, fright and panic but of reverence and respect.  We have other English words like awe, amazement, admiration even astonishment!

Now I know as a pastor and a life-long Christian you expect me to say I fear the LORD, in other words I worship Him and let me say I do.  But I also fear Him.  I mean I many times find myself “in fear” or reserved from Him and I think that human fear does that to a person.  It causes them to think the worst, believe the worst, live the worst.  

And when I reserve myself from my God I walk “in fear” of Him not “fearing” Him.  The good news that “fearing” God is the beginning of wisdom and good understanding additionally the Bible also tells us in Psalm 25:14 that “The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”  That is good news.

The bad news is that the opposite is true for those that are “in fear” of him.  They walk without wisdom and good understanding.  They don’t have a God that confides in them or know the covenant of God.  Why?  Simple we are reserved.  The balance of fearing God will send us in reverence or reservation.  Where are you?