Fear of Becoming an Active Christian

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

A little over a week ago, something happened to me that has literally changed my life. Since 2 nd Grade, I've either worn glasses or contacts, which means I needed them so bad the last thing I did at night was take my glasses off and put them next to the bed and the first thing I did in the morning was to pick them up and put them on because I could not function without either one of them, couldn't see three feet in front of me.

A week ago Thursday, I threw away my glasses and I disposed of all of my contact paraphernalia. I had Lasix surgery done on my eyes, nothing short of a modern day miracle as far as I'm concerned. As I stand before you this morning, no contacts in the eyes, no glasses upon my nose, and I can see all five of you out there. No, I can see all of you out there. Nothing short of incredible.

But I have to admit the road to where I am right now was not a smooth road. You see, I talked about it for years, dreamed about it for years, debated it with myself for years. “Should I do it? Shouldn't I do it? What happens if something goes wrong? Should we afford it? Should we afford it?” On and on. In fact, even up until the day of surgery, I'm certain I drove my wife nuts because the weeks leading up to it, on a daily basis, I would say, “You know, am I really making the right decision here? What if something goes wrong? What if I move my head? What if the laser misfires? What if I still have to wear glasses? You sure we should spend this kind of money?” Patient as a saint, she is. All those fears, all that anxiety but, because I overcame those fears, the reward is nothing short of remarkable.

Often times, if we can overcome our fears, the results are nothing short of remarkable. Certainly, that's true in our relationship with God if we can overcome our fears of actually living what we believe, if we can overcome the fears of, “What will people think of us,” and “What will people say,” and “What will the reaction be,” and “What will the consequences be if I actually live out the new life God has given to me, if I live according to the way God has asked me to live, if there's agreement between what I believe and what I live?” If we can overcome those fears, the rewards are nothing short of being remarkable because, when there is agreement between what we believe and what we actually do, that's the basis for a rock-solid faith.

A great example of that is in the Old Testament, person of Moses. Moses certainly did have some fears he had to get over. But, once he got over those, the results are nothing short of remarkable. We've been kind of following along Moses for the last couple of weeks. You may recall Moses has been asked by God to go back to Egypt and lead the people of Israel out of captivity. Four hundred years they've been slaves to the Egyptians, Moses is to go back and lead them back out of there. Now to be sure, Moses believes in God. He has a faith relationship with God. Particularly at this moment in time, after all, God is speaking to him directly from a bush that's on fire but doesn't seem to be consumed. Kind of hard to deny that something's happening here. So there's no doubt Moses has a faith relationship. He believes in God, but yet there are still fears Moses has to get over. Legitimate fears, as far as I'm concerned. How easy can it be to go to somebody and say, “You know, a burning bush told me I should come back here and save you all.” Not to mention the fears of what's he going to say to his father-in-law. He has to go back to him and he has to tell him, “Listen, I'm going to leave and go back to Egypt . You're going to have to handle all the herds and all the sheep by yourself.” But maybe, possibly, this is just in my own mind, the greatest challenge that lays before Moses, maybe the biggest fear he has in front of him, he has to go home and explain it to his wife. Now how do you do that? You sitting around the dinner table, “You know, Honey, I hear Egypt is kind of nice this time of year. Shall we go for a visit?”

In spite of all those fears Moses had, he manages, by God's grace, to overcome those fears. As a reward of that, it's nothing short of magnificent. Not only does Moses go to Egypt, not only does he face the Pharaoh, he leads the people out of Egypt, into the wilderness, on the brink of the Promise Land, he talks to God on a regular basis, face to face. Maybe even more remarkable than that is thousands upon thousands of years later, you and I are still reading about, talking about Moses and the great faith this man had. He went from mediocre to magnificent. He went from questioning God, debating with God, to being one of the fathers of the faith, one of those people we look to as the pillar of what it is to be a man of God.

The same can be said for you and me. If we were to rekindle the fire of faith in our lives, if we want to know the warmth of God's love in a new and refreshing way, there needs to be agreement between what we believe and how we live. And when there's agreement between those two things, our faith soars. It all begins when we learn how to overcome our fears. Overcome the fear of leading a Christian life.

We can look to Moses this morning and discover there are four principles to overcoming those fears. The first thing is this: Identify what it is you're afraid of. Moses does. Exodus 4 says this, “Moses answered, ‘What if they don't believe me or listen to me or say ‘The Lord did not appear to you.''” That's a legitimate fear Moses has. He's going to go back to Egypt . Most of the people aren't going to know who he is, some stranger that wandered in. Those people that do remember him are going to wonder why he's back. His family may be angry at him because he's been gone for 40 years. He's going to traipse up to them and say, “By the way, God appeared to me in a burning bush that wasn't consumed and He says I'm going to lead you out of Egypt .” Now how are they going to take that? In essence, Moses is going to ask the people to revolt and rebel against Pharaoh, one of the mightiest nations of that time. After 400 years of captivity, Moses, one man, is going to come to them and say, “It's all over now. We're going to leave.” And he's going to stand before Pharaoh and say this. I think the man has a right to have some fears. He identifies what it is he's afraid of. He is afraid the people will not listen, they won't believe him, they may laugh at him, they may run him out of town, and that's not even to say anything about the fact he has to go before Pharaoh himself.

What are your fears? What are you afraid of? What is it that worries you, brings you angst about actually living out your faith, of actually having agreement between what you believe and what you do? So the same way you act here on Sunday morning in the fellowship of believers is the same when you walk outside that door? Aren't there some areas of your life where there's a disconnect, where things aren't the same?

My next older brother lives up in Michigan in Detroit , and he works for one of the big three in one of the car factories up there. And he's told me for years, “I have two different vocabularies. I have one vocabulary I use when I'm in the shop and one vocabulary I use when I'm at home. And I never want to bring home the language I use in the shop. I never want to use that at home.” I said, “Well, why do you have to have two then? That doesn't make sense.” He says, “Oh, no. I couldn't survive in the shop unless I talked to same way they did. I have to adopt their vocabulary or I couldn't survive.”

Do you have two different vocabularies, the vocabulary you use here on Sunday morning and the vocabulary you use on Monday at work? Do you have two different vocabularies, one you use in front of Mom and Dad and one you use in front of your friends? What is it we're afraid of? Why are we afraid to have just one vocabulary, one language we use? Are we afraid of the social ramifications, what would happen to us socially? So, for instance, if we have friends over for dinner, although we pray before every meal, when we have company, we just skip the prayer because they just might not understand, they might feel uncomfortable. Do we do the same thing when we're in restaurants because we're not quite sure? Are we fearful of what people will think? Will they label us as ultra-religious or over-spiritual bible toting? Are we concerned about what they'll say about us? Are we concerned about the consequences that could happen to us? So we tell our kids, “No, you're not going to practice this morning. We're going to church and the coach is just going to have to live with it.” But are you afraid, at the next game, your son or daughter isn't going to play because the coach says they weren't at practice?

Are you afraid it might affect you at work? Are you afraid to go up to your boss and say, “You know, what you're asking me to do here really is unethical. In fact, I flat out believe it's wrong and I can't do that.” Are you afraid to say that to him? What is it you're afraid of?

Identify it. Identify what your fear is, and then ask yourself is it a real fear? Is it legitimate? Some of them may not be. If you look at them objectively, you may say, “That's not really anything to be afraid of.” Some of them, frankly, are legitimate. They are legitimate fears of things that could happen if you live out your faith, but at least know what you're up against. Identify what the fear is.

And then step out in faith. There's no middle ground here. There's no middle step. It's step out in faith. Maybe it's going to be a small step. Maybe it's just going to be a move in that direction. But you're going to have to find one area of your life where you say, “You know what, I'm going to have agreement. This is what I believe. This is what I stand for, and that's how I'm going to live.” So you pick that one area and you take that first step. And the first step is the hardest step. It's the biggest step, even if it seems small.

I'll show you what I mean from Moses. Moses takes the first step. A little bit later on in Chapter 4, “Then Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, ‘Let me go back to my own people.'” That was a huge step for Moses. Because what Moses was doing was saying, “I'm committed. I'm going to do it.” And he had to make the first step of going to his father-in-law and saying, “Father-in-law, listen. I have to tell you, Jethro, I am being called by God back to Egypt . I know that's going to put a strain on you, trying to take care of everything here, but I'm going.” The first step, although it seems small, is a huge step for Moses because he's moving in that direction, and he's going to find out the next step after that isn't going to be nearly as difficult as the first one.

What's your first step? Determine what that first step is, even if it's a small step. Maybe you're going to decide you're only going to have one vocabulary and you're going to start immediately. And so that vocabulary, which is not God-pleasing, you're going to push it out of your life. Maybe you're going to decide you're not going to listen to the gossip anymore, no matter how much you want to hear the dirt on somebody else and nor are you going to spread it on to someone else. Maybe you're going to decide, whether company is over or not, you're going to pray before the meal and thank God for His bounty and ask His blessing upon it. What is the first step you're going to make?

And what you'll find out is the first step ends up having huge implications. Huge implications. It's what happened with Moses. Moses makes the first step. He tells his father-in-law, probably the hardest thing. All of a sudden, just a little bit later on, now we have in Verse 29, “Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses.” No hemming, no hawing around. No more bantering back and forth with God. Now Moses is standing with his brother-in-law in front of the people, the Israelites, and he's saying, “This is what God has told me,” just as bold as can be. He took the first step and, all of a sudden, the second step wasn't nearly as tough. Two verses later, what do we have? Chapter 5, Verse 1, “Afterwards, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh.” He goes from talking to his father-in-law to Pharaoh. He goes to him saying, “Hey, Dad, I have to leave,” to talking to the ruler of one of the mightiest nations of that time saying, “Listen, I'm going to take your slave labor you've had for 400 years and we're going to lead them out of here.” Something's happened to Moses. All of a sudden, there's a boldness about him. There's a strength about him.

There's a strength about him. He took that first step and, by God's grace, he talked to Jethro and then, all of a sudden, he's talking to the Israelites and then he's standing before Pharaoh himself.

The same thing happens with you and me. We take that first step to overcome those fears. And even if the fears are legitimate, all of a sudden, there's a new boldness about us. There's a new confidence. 2 Timothy 1 says, “God did not give you a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and of love and of self discipline.” God has given you His spirit of power. His Holy Spirit that was bestowed upon you at baptism, the Holy Spirit that called you to faith, it's not a spirit of timidity. It's a spirit of power and boldness. And by that spirit's power, you take that first step and, all of a sudden, the second and third steps become even easier because you release God's power in your life. You release the power of the Holy Spirit and you take that first step of overcoming those fears.

But I have to warn you, you need to expect setbacks. Expect there is going to be resistance, and expect there are going to be setbacks to you. Because if there's one thing I know, it's this: The devil does not want us to grow in our relationship with God. The last thing Satan wants to see is for us to have a stronger relationship with our God and He's going to do anything and everything possible to thwart that kind of relationship growing and fostering. It happened to Moses. It will happen to us.

In fact, Moses' worst fears came to fruition. We go on in Chapter 5. Moses and Aaron talked to Pharaoh. Pharaoh looks at them and says, “You must be kidding.” And the next thing Pharaoh does is he says to all the slave masters, “Okay, now they're going to make bricks without straw but the quota has to stay the same.” Yeah, you can imagine how well that went over with the Israelites. So, at the end of Chapter 5, the leaders say to Moses, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you. You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hands to kill us.” Moses' worst fears have come to fruition. The people have turned on him. He said to God, “The people won't believe me. They'll think I'm nuts.” And that's exactly what's happened. Now the people are angry at Moses. They've turned on Moses. His worst fears have come to fruition.

The same thing may happen to you. Be up-front and honest about it and expect it. The same thing may happen to you as you start living out your faith, as you start having agreement between what you believe and how you live. Maybe your boss isn't going to take too kindly when you say to him or her, “This is unethical. This is wrong, and I'm not going to do it.” Maybe the coach is going to cut your son or daughter when you say, “We're going to choose church and godly things over practice and games.” It could happen. It may happen. It may probably happen.

Jesus said even family members will turn against us. We need to expect that and to be ready for that. And when it comes, we focus on God. That's the last thing for overcoming our fears and the most important. We focus on God and what He has done for us. It's amazing in Chapter 5, as soon as the people say these nasty words to Moses, the very next verse says this, “Moses returned to the Lord.” Now do you find that as surprising as I do? Moses returned to the Lord. I would have expected it to say, “Moses returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, gathered his flock together, and just went out and said, ‘That's it.'” I would have expected it to say, “Moses went away pouting, muttering underneath his breath, ‘I knew it. I knew it. I knew it.'” All of his fears had come to fruition. No. He returned to the Lord. He focused in on God, and God responded. Because God says in the beginning of Chapter 6, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh.'” “Now you're going to see what I'm going to do to Pharaoh.”

You see, the fact is God doesn't let us down. He knows there's going to be a push back. He knows there are going to be setbacks in our life as we try to live as His people. But God says, “I'm going to be there.” God had promised Moses. He said, “I will be with you.” And right here God is saying, “Moses, I'm still with you.” He says, “And I'm going to show you what I'm going to do with Pharaoh. Just be patient, Moses. Don't worry. It's not over yet. You've had a temporary setback, but I promise I'm going to show you what's going to happen to Pharaoh.” God says to us He is with us. Don't be afraid. Even though there's going to be a push back, there are going to be some setbacks, don't be afraid. God says, “I'm with you.” Romans 8 says, “He who did not spare His own Son for us, will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things.” God's going to graciously give us all things. He's going to be there with us on the front line as we try to live out that life. You focus on God and all He's done for you. You gain strength from that and, when the setback comes, you return to the Lord. And the Lord is to say, “Don't worry. I'm going to show you how it's going to work out.” It may not be real soon. It may not be next week, next year. God says, “But someday, one day, you're going to see how it's all worked out because I have plans for you.” And He has promised us that everything that happens is going to work for our good. We get over our fears. We get over the setbacks and we focus on God.

If we can overcome our fears, fear of living out the new life God has given to us, the rewards are nothing short of remarkable. When there is agreement between what we believe and how we live, that forms a rock solid faith relationship between you and your Lord. You overcome the fears and watch what happens.

A week and a half ago, by the grace of God, I overcame my fears and I'm seeing 20/20. No contacts. No glasses. Thousands of years ago, Moses, by God's grace, overcame his fears. As a result, the people of Israel marched out of Egypt and into the Promise Land . And from that nation, our Savior was born.

Tomorrow morning, you're going to walk outside of the house. Just imagine what God is going to accomplish in your life when you take that first step and you overcome those fears. Amen.