How to cope with fear

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 25 JUNE 2023

ISAIAH 12

In past weeks we have been looking at Gideon.  God set a task before him.  The Midianites and the armies of the east came up to camp against Israel.  He told Gideon he would bring a great victory with only 300 men and little armoury.  I am sure he was gripped with a great fear.  Peter faced a great challenge when he was told to go into the house of Cornelius.  Someone who he would never have gone near before.  I am sure he was gripped with fear as he faced this challenge.  D L Moody called with a young man and his wife who had sought the Lord in one of his meetings.  They were both quite lively for the Lord and would give out tracts and attended various meetings.  The young man was excited with what he had found in the bible.  He opened up Psalm 56 verse 3 “what time I am afraid I will trust in thee.”  He was so encouraged by this verse, it comforted him.  The Bible is a real, living word and can be used at different times in our lives to bring real comfort.  God sees and comes with a word appropriate for the occasion we face.  That is what this young man found when he discovered the verse in Psalm 56.  D L Moody asked if he could show him another verse that was even better.  He turned to Isaiah 12 verse 2 “Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid.”  How to cope with fear.  When Isaiah said “behold” it means to stop and have a second look.  John the Baptist said of Jesus “behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”  Lift your eyes to Jesus today.  “Behold God is my salvation” signifies what was happening on the inside while the response “I will trust and not be afraid shows the outward response.

 

The reality of fear.  Isaiah shows the reality and honesty of his fear.  He knew it was real.  It is an emotion that crops up in all our lives at times.  Fear is not of God.  Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 “God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  Be thou not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.”  Paul could see something in Timothy – fear creeping in.  Fear is not of the Lord, it has its origin in the Garden of Eden.  It came about as a result of man’s disobedience to God.  Fear can be traced to the fact that it will keep us down.  Eve was deceived by the devil but Adam made a choice to follow after the leading of his wife.  Sin entered into the world at that point.  In those early chapters of Genesis we see the mighty creation of God behind everything that was created.  When God was done he said everything was very good.  He spoke and everything came into being.  Then God took the dust of the ground and made man, he breathed into man and he became a living soul.  He thought it was not right that man should be alone.  God put Adam to sleep and took a rib from his side to create Eve his wife.  They both were now man and wife.  When Adam took that fruit and ran away from God, God came down and found him.  Adam said “I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid.”  The first mention of fear is after man’s disobedience of God and fear entered into the world.  Man was afraid because he knew he was in disobedience to God.  Remember Nehemiah and the atmosphere of fear that surrounded him as the people built the walls of Jerusalem.  He was ridiculed and criticised.  Nehemiah was able to say “the enemy made us afraid.”  Fear does come.

 

There is a restriction in fear.  Once fear grips us it will restrict us in doing what God asks us to do.  Many an unsaved man or woman is restricted when God calls them and they start to think about what people would think of them turning to Christ.  The writer to the Proverbs said “the fear of man bringeth a snare but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be saved.”  Isaiah was the prophet who brought God’s word to the nation.  Think of Pilot when Jesus stood before him.  He was convinced in his own mind that Jesus was innocent.  He listened to so many – his wife, his counsellors, the crowd.  Pilate sent Jesus back to Herod who could also find no fault in him so he went back to Pilate.  Pilate told the crowd he was going to release him.  The people shouted that if he did that he was no friend of Caesar.  Pilate was gripped by fear that he decided to have Jesus crucified.  Remember Moses at the burning bush.  God was going to change the direction of his life.  He wanted Moses to go back to Egypt and bring the Israelites out.  Fear gripped him.  Someone once said Moses was 40 years in Pharaoh’s house learning to be something and 40 years in the wilderness learning to be a nobody.  Fear was restricting Moses at the burning bush.  Maybe God is about to change your life and take it in a different direction.  Remember how the disciples were when they first met together alone.  They closed and locked all the doors.  Fear had gripped their hearts.  They were afraid of being killed just as Jesus had been.  Fear restricted their duty.

 

The remedy for fear that cannot fail.  “I will trust”.  Peter failed when he lifted his eyes off the Lord.  He had stepped out of the boat and was walking on water to Jesus.  He got his eyes off the Lord.  The Psalmist could say “I will lift up mine eyes unto the Lord from whence doth come mine aid.”  We need not look to man made things to help us but rather to stick closely to the Lord.  Isaiah had to prove to himself that he was in touch with God.  When the forces of Assyria came down and stood at the gates of the palace Hezekiah, he sent for Isaiah.  2 Kings 19 verse 16 “Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.  Behold, I will send a blast upon him and he shall hear a rumour and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”  Isaiah was trusting in the Lord and he was not afraid.  Hezekiah was afraid and his counsellors and army was afraid.  That night God sent 1 angel, not an army, down to Jerusalem and the next morning there were 185,000 soldiers lying dead as corpses.  Today we need not be afraid.  God’s word will never fail us.  We must trust, stand firm and put God first.

 

A resolve in this fear to be faithful.  “I will trust and not be afraid”  Whenever that sudden fear comes I will not look away but rather trust and not be afraid to put God first.  Remember the resolve of Joshua “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”  It doesn’t matter what we face, the Lord will be first in everything we seek to do.  There may be niggling doubts but we must get the Lord in full focus.