Living in Fear

Introduction

Phobia: Webster defines this word as “an exaggerated and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.”

Do you know anyone with a phobia? Someone who has an illogical fear of something that just doesn’t make any sense? I’m sure you do, but in case not, let me give you a few examples.

Did you know that Oprah Winfrey has a phobia Her phobia is Chiclephobia: which is the fear of chewing gum...

As a young girl, she saw her grandma chew gum, and then stick it to her cabinet where there were rows of dried Spearmint and Juicy Fruit, and this grossed her out. Rightly so… In fact, it grossed her out so much that she came to despise even the sound of people chewing gum, and banned it from her show’s studio.

Alfred Hitchcock suffered from a phobia called Ovophobia

Which is the fear of eggs. Hitchcock found eggs to be absolutely revolting In fact, he never tasted one in his entire life. He was so revolted by them that he even refused to be around them at all!

The famous actor and screenwriter Woody Allen had a really bad one called Panophobia.

Which is the fear of basically everything! From being afraid of heights, enclosed places, insects, bright colours, elevators and sunshine, Allen has a non-specific fear of everything being a source of evil. He was also incredibly OCD, so much so that his shower drain had to be in a corner, and his bananas had to be cut into 7 pieces.

Johnny Depp, the actor who played Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney’s The Pirates of the Caribbean, suffers from a phobia called Coulrophobia: which is the irrational fear of clowns.

Now... personally, I really don’t understand why this is considered a phobia… Because fear of clowns is not irrational in the slightest That one make total sense...

One more - and I’d have to say that this is the biggest phobia of them all.

A church congregation that fears anything at all!

Think about it: Here is a group of people who have eternal life. People who have been bought, purchased, and redeemed by the precious blood of God’s only Son, People whom no matter what happens, will one day rise gloriously from the dead to live forever in the new heavens and the new earth in the Kingdom of God!

And yet, they worry. They fear... It’s weird right?!

Sometimes they panic & worry about their health... Sometimes they fear a virus with a 99.98% survivability rate for those younger than 50. A Virus with a 99.5% survivability rate if you’re younger than 70, And an almost 95% survival rate if you’re over 70. A virus where 2/3rd’s of all death’s have occurred in nursing home A virus where, last time I checked, officially only has 4 people on record contracting it a 2nd time. A virus where the median age for deaths is over 80 years old With only 6% of the deceased having had no serious preconditions.

And yet for many of them, they live in fear that reaches the levels of the unbelieving world around them.

But wait, now let’s imagine if that virus’ mortality rate was seriously high. Would that make it their fear any more justified? Would it? Nope.

Let me be crystal clear here. In the Bible, there’s no command against taking precautions (OK, did everyone catch that). However, do you know what command we find the most from Genesis to Revelation? DO… NOT… .FEAR! Over and over we are commanded to not fear the wrong things, and to fear the right thing.

Beloved, I tell you, we must not fear a thing, for not only is it illogical for us to, but at it’s core, fear is unbelief! Whether our prince wasn’t elected... Our job was lost... Our health falters... Or persecution comes... We must not fear! Because for the Christian, all fear MINUS ONE, is an irrational phobia!

Would you please turn with me this morning in your Bible’s to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 5, verses 22-25, where we find the miracle of Jesus calming the storm, which speaks directly to the subject of fear.

Allow me to provide a little background here: Right before this event, Jesus had been teaching the people from a boat that was pushed out from shore a short distance, and when evening came He decided to go the other side of the lake. So Jesus set off across the sea of Galilee, which is basically a massively huge lake, with His disciples and several other boats. Why do I say there’s several other boats? Because that’s what Mark says in verse 36 - there were other boats with Him. And so off they go sailing into what would be a massive storm.

To understand how severe this storm was, you need to know a little something about the sea of Galilee. This massive lake lies 700 hundred feet below sea level in a basin surrounded by hills and mountains. Nearby lies Mount Hermon, which is nearly 9,200 feet above sea level. Got that? The Sea of Galilee is 700 feet below sea level, mount Hermon is 9,200 feet above sea level. And you know this - what happens when cold air hits warm air? BAD weather! So the way this works, the cold air from mount Hermon is suddenly sucked down in a vortex and rapidly meets the warm air from the Sea of Galilee, which causes a really bad storm, or as the text mentions, a “furious squall,” The Greek term can actually mean hurricane, which let’s us know how bad these storms could sometimes get... especially the one Jesus and the disciples found themselves in.

Why was Jesus crossing the sea? It doesn’t say, but Jesus never did anything unintentionally For right after Jesus calms the storm upon the sea, he calms storm that is raging in the demon possessed man by casting the demon out. But, that’s not our text, so we’ll leave that for another day and focus today on Jesus’s remarkable miracle of calming the storm.

Now what does all of this have to do with fear? A lot, as we’ll attempt to unpack here this morning.

From this miraculous story we will see 4 things that fear forgets

Fear that Forgets:

1. God warned us of the storm.
2. God is with us in the storm (v. 37-38).
3. God is in control of the storm (38-40).
4. God is the storm. (41).
5. God is the calm for the storm (v. 39).

Let’s look at the first one this morning. Fear forgets:

1. God warned us of the storm.

37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when the storms of life arise, I start to look around and find myself thinking the same thing the disciples did: “God… where are you?” “Don’t you even see what’s happening? “ “I could use a little help here ya know!”

And it’s hard not to think this way: Because we live in a culture that tells us that once we give our life to God it will be easy street from there on out and everything will go well! But that’s not true! And if you think that way, when storms arise - and they will, you’re going to respond with shock and fear and wonder whether God even cares.

As we saw from James 1:2:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

James 1:2 ESV

Romans 8:16-17:

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Romans 8:16-17 ESV

If you forget that God has promised us storms in this life, you will respond like the disciples did with fear and dread when storms show up. But we must remember that these storms where promised, and that they are merely temporary. And if you remember that, you’ll sleep internally just as Jesus did in the midst of the storm. Which leads us to our second point.

Fear Forgets

2. God is with us in the storm (v. 37-38).

What does Mark say that is Jesus doing in the middle of the storm? He’s Sleeping!

He must have been really tired and really confident in His trust in God to sleep through such a violent storm as this. And what do the disciples do? They wake Him up, and rudely ask Him, “Jesus, do you even care?” “We’re about to die here, do something!” Do you know, the reason we sometimes talk or think like this is that is we forget what God has done... It’s true.

December is just around the corner, which means we are about to celebrate Christmas, And for Christians this Holiday is a reminder of a wonderful truth - It is the reminder that our God is Emmanuel - God with us! See, in Christ, the eternal and holy God of the universe came down to truly be with us forever! And we sing of this every year in the Christmas hymn, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”: “Christ by highest Heav'n adored Christ the everlasting Lord! Late in time behold Him come Offspring of a Virgin's womb Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity Pleased as man with man to dwell Jesus, our Emmanuel!”

When we respond fear to the storms of life like the disciples did, it is because we forget that Emmanuel is with us! We forget that He’s promised to never leave us nor forsake us! Though the waves be crashing around us, Though the boat of our life appears to be filling with water, We must remember God has warned us of the storm and He is with us in the storm.

He’s not asleep or unaware of our plight, For though Jesus slept in the disciple’s boat, He was still upholding the entire universe by the power of His might! Which leads us to the our 3rd point.

Fear Forgets

3. God is in control of the storm (38-40).

38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Here Jesus calms the storm with what? His words... That’s pretty powerful. He rebukes this incredibly powerful wind as if it were an annoying heckler: “Be quiet!” Jesus says - and it is quiet. “Be still” Jesus says, and the waves IMMEDIATELY are calm as glass... Why? Because He is the sovereign Lord over all Creation.

Psalm 89:9

You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.

Psalm 89:9 ESV

Psalm 65:6-7

the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples,

Psalm 65:6-7 ESV

The Creator-Lord controls what he has created, for as Colossians 1:17 says:

Colossians 1:16-17

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:16 ESV

When the storms of life rise up, we must remember who it is who is in complete control over them! Even if it seems like He’s slow to act, we must remember that God often lets storms rise and the boat begin to sink before He acts, And He does this because He’s using these storms in our lives to for a purpose that is greater than we can possibly fathom.

Yes, like the disciples, we sometimes too will respond with a lack of faith: We will as the Psalmist did in Psalm 44, “Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!” And when we start to feel this way, we must remember that God sovereignly brings the storms about and He will not be hurried to act! He acts in His perfect timing - not ours!

I don’t know about you, but I imagine the disciples waking up Jesus, who doesn’t respond at all with the urgency they expected. Maybe he yawns and stretches a bit before He look at them and says: “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” What Jesus is saying to them is this: “Why do you not believe in me? Why do you not trust me? Why do you doubt me? I’m here aren’t I? I’m with you in the storm, and I have complete and total power over it, so fear not!”

Fear Forgets

4. God is the storm. (41).

41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

In verse 41, the fear the disciples had for the storm is replaced by an even greater fear. It is a fear of being in the presence of God. Why is that a fearful thing? Because as fearful as a raging hurricane or tornado might be, that is but a small picture of the real power from which it comes!

As we read at the start of our worship service from Psalm 29: 3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. 4 The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” 10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.

Nature’s power is but on loan from God, and the disciples were rightly terrified by such power being in their very boat! “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” - They asked. And the answer is: This is the God who laughs in the face of storms! The God, as we just sang, “Oh, tell of His might, oh, sing of His grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form And dark is His path on the wings of the storm!”

One day his chariots of wrath will form as thunderclouds and dark will be His path of judgment as He comes with infinite power to judge sin of the world. And so sinners are right to be terrified by God’s presence, Which is why in Luke chapter 5, Peter cried out to Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

Peter said this because He understood He was a sinner, and that God was Holy, and this holy and perfect God would one day rightly judge sinners with the full power of His sovereign might!

Isaiah 2:12-21

For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up - and it shall be brought low; against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan; against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills; against every high tower, and against every fortified wall; against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away. And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

Isaiah 2:12-21 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:28 ESV

Hebrews 10:31 says 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The disciples entered the storm fearing the storm, but they left the storm fearing the Lord: Which as Proverbs 1 tells us, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: Which leads us to our last point.

Fear Forgets

5. God is the calm for the storm (v. 39).

39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Christ is both the fury of the storm and the calm for the storm, Which is why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, For once the Lord is your fear, only then can He be your comfort!

In Genesis 31, do you know what name Jacob uses to refer to the Lord…? He refers to God as “THE FEAR of Isaac.” Well that’s weird… how’s that comforting? Because once the Lord is your fear, only then, can He become your comfort!

“Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 8:12-14 ESV

Church, do not miss how significant this is! What this means is, we have a fear, that drives out all other fears, And then turns around to becomes our comfort - our sanctuary - our peace!

Do you want that kind of peace? I can tell you this: you won’t have that peace if Jesus is just your buddy, your advisor, or your life coach! It is ONLY when Jesus is YOUR FEAR as he was for Jacob, that He becomes your Hope and joy that casts out all other lesser fears in your life! And when that happens you can sing as the Psalmist did: Psalm 5:7

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.

Psalm 5:7 ESV

Show me a church filled with wordly fear and I will show you a church that does not fear the Lord! Show me a church that is terrified of viruses, elections, and an ever growing anti-Christian culture and I will show you a church that does not tremble before God’s majesty, power, and worth! A church filled with worldly fear doesn’t take sin seriously, They do not take holiness seriously, And a people who do not have the peace of God at work in their life!

BUT... show me a church that rightly fears the Lord and you will show me a church that smiles in the face of the storm. Why? Because they know that even the gates of hell itself will not prevail against her… And when they know that, this spurs them on boldly without fear into the world because their fear of God cancels out their fear of this world!

And their fear of God isn’t their dread, but their delight!

Why? Because they have a fear of God that turns them towards the love of a Savior who went through the fury of the storm for us. And what storm was that? It was the storm of God’s wrath which we rightly deserved, which crushed Christ for us, so that we might one day live without fear forever with Him. Then won’t you trade in your fear for THE FEAR - who is the one who calms all fears!

Luke 1:50

And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

Luke 1:50 ESV

Are you living in fear? Then won’t you trade in your fear for THE FEAR - who happens to be the one who calms all fears...

This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.