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Spooked 3 – Fear Of The Unknown
https://youtu.be/vOth7v1hAow
In order to spice things up a bit, we are going to “quote and quote” go over some things that spook us. We have talked about the fear of man, the fear of the supernatural. But today we are going to talk about the fear of the unknown.
Church,
I have to confess. I really like horror movies.
God can use all
things for good; horror movies are partly responsible for me being a
part of Redemption Church.
Be
real. God can use you as you are. You are unique; God can work with
that.
Anyways, I like horror movies. I’ve seen a lot of them.
What
is the scariest thing in horror movies?
Is it the monster?
Is
it the human monster?
Is it the gore?
Is it the jump
scares?
Is it the idea that this thing could be real?
Nope.
Turn to someone and say, “I don’t know.”
FEAR
OF THE UNKNOWN
It’s
the fear of the unknown.
Today we’re going to be talking
about the fear of the unknown.
The
unknown can be terrifying.
In movies, it’s the nervousness
that the killer is hiding somewhere.
chi-chi-chi-ah-ah-ah
Something
awful is about to happen, but we don’t know where or when…
The
unknown is much scarier than the monster.
Fear
of the unknown manifests in different forms.
Fear of the
dark.
Fear of death.
I
got bad news for you church. You’re xenophobic.
Turn to
someone and say, “You’re xenophobic.”
The
word “xenophobic” has been used a lot in the news recently. What
does it mean?
From
Fearof.net: “Xenophobia is the irrational sensation of fear
experienced about a person or a group of persons as well as
situations that are perceived as strange or foreign. It is the fear
of anything that is beyond one’s comfort zone.”
Do
you get uncomfortable when you’re not in control, when you’re not
sure what is going to happen? Do you get nervous when you don’t
know?
We
all do.
And
it is God’s fault.
IMAGINATION
God
blesses us all with an imagination.
As
we get older we tend to misuse it.
“What
if…?” …………………..
When
we face the unknown, our minds can fill in the gaps with the worst
case scenario.
In
some ways, that can be prudent. It is good to be careful and
anticipate problems.
But taken to the extreme it can be
debilitating.
We
all face the unknown, every day. If imagine that it is always filled
with the worst of the worst, our lives would be terrifying.
FEAR
PREVENTS…
Fear
prevents us from doing things.
Fear
prevents us from being who God has called us to be.
Let’s
look at an example from scripture. It’s in one of my favorite books
of the Bible:
Judges.
We’re
going to take a look at the story of Gideon. You may remember his
victory. You may remember the fleece. But there are a few details
that tend to get forgotten.
Here’s
the backstory: Israel had strayed from God.
JUDGES 6:5-6 NIV They (the Midianites) came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
The Israelites had a reasonable fear, but let us hear God’s solution.
JUDGES 6:11-12 NIV The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
He
is threshing wheat in a winepress. Does this sound like a mighty
warrior?
JUDGES 6:13 NIV “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
JUDGES 6:14 NIV The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
JUDGES 6:15 NIV “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
JUDGES 6:16 NIV The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
Long
story short, Gideon prepares a meal for this angel. The angel touches
it with its staff and it erupts into flames.
JUDGES 6:22 NIV When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
JUDGES 6:23 NIV But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
Are you listening, Gideon?
JUDGES 6:25-26 NIV That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.”
Gideon
does it. The next day the people of the town want to kill him, but he
escapes.
But
then, when it’s time to deal with the Midianites… He’s not so
sure.
Judges 6:36-38 NIV
Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
After all that has happened,
Gideon says, “I don’t know… I need a miracle to be sure.”
And
God does it! Okay, so we should be ready to go at this point, right?
NO!!!
Judges 6:39-40 NIV
Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
What?!?!
Do we do this? We’ve seen
God do amazing things in the past. We believe. God calls us to do
something… and we’re not so sure. I don’t know. God, is that
really you?
Do you really want me to do that? Maybe if you show
me a miracle I’ll know it’s you.
Okay, but that might have been
a fluke. Can I get one more miracle?
Yes. We all do that. And we do
it when God calls us to much less threatening things than fighting an
army that cannot be counted. We do that when God calls us to share
our faith.
Why? Why do we do this?
Because there is so much we don’t know.
What if it doesn’t
work? What if I look stupid? What if I do it wrong? What if they
think I’m a weirdo? What if…
Child, where is your faith?!
In the first week of this
series Pastor Chris mentioned that fear is faith in the wrong things.
When we fear something we have
more faith in its ability to harm us, than in God’s ability to
protect us.
When we fear the unknown we
are putting our faith in things that DO NOT EXIST!
Lord, thank you for your
patience with us.
FEAR
PREVENTS…
Gideon was the one called to
deliver his nation and defeat this oppressive army.
But he
almost let his fear of the unknown prevent his country from getting
saved.
What are you doing?
What is fear preventing you
from doing? What has God called you to do, but you haven’t done it
because… well, I just don’t know…?
But if you’re lazy… (like
me) fear of the unknown does make a great excuse.
PROVERBS 22:13 NIV The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!”
FEAR PREVENTS…
I can’t go out. Something
bad might happen. I’ll just stay on the couch and watch more
Netflix.
I can’t step out in faith.
Something bad might happen. STOP IT!!!
Brothers and sisters, God
has called you to do mighty things, and you are letting your fear of
things that don’t exist prevent these mighty things from taking
place!
Get going! And if there is a
lion outside, we’ll deal with it. God is with you! That lion should
be afraid of you!
Look, I know it’s not always
easy. There is a lot we don’t know. This world can be a dangerous
place. And there is an enemy out there that wants to kill, steal, and
destroy.
But what do you put your faith
in?
There is a lot we don’t
know. It is unknown to us. But it is known to God.
You know what else we don’t
know? We don’t know the incredible things that God can do through
us.
Back
to the story of Gideon. So NOW
Gideon is convinced… and he raises an army.
But God says,
“Nope that’s too many people. Gideon, your army is too big.”
JUDGES 7:3 NIV “Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
Note,
when God has something that He wants done, if you’re too afraid,
he’ll let you go home. He will find someone else to get the job
done.
Remember,
they are preparing to fight an army that is impossible to count.
Now
Gideon is down to 10,000 soldiers. Guess what? Still too many.
So
God has Gideon tell the soldiers to go and drink some water and some
drank it with their hands but a few put their faces down and lapped
it up.
JUDGES 7:7 NIV The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”
What??!?
300? How is this going to work out? What is going to happen?
I
don’t know but God is at work, and with him all things are
possible.
It
gets even better.
JUDGES 7:16 NIV Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.
Alright
men, I know we’re vastly outnumbered, but we’ve got superior
weaponry.
Everybody take a trumpet and a jar. Careful there’s
a torch in there…
I
DON’T KNOW HOW THIS CAN POSSIBLY WORK OUT!!!
The truth is, it
can’t. Except God is involved, and so it does.
JUDGES 7:20 NIV The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
JUDGES 7:21 NIV While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.
Who
is afraid now? But wait…
JUDGES 7:22 NIV When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled…
The
Midianites were afraid… of the unknown. How many soldiers are out
there?
I don’t know. Can we beat them? I don’t know. Should
we run? Probably.
And
they were so scared that they drew their swords and started attacking
each other. I’m running for my life, and I’m going to murder
anyone who doesn’t get out of my way fast enough! They started
killing themselves; Gideon’s army didn’t even have to fight.
Again,
take note, if you give yourself over to fear, to fear of the unknown,
you will start destroying yourself.
But
did you see what God did there? That victory was impossible. It could
not have been known ahead of time.
If
you’re afraid of the unknown, and you’re not going to act until
you know how it will work out. Then you are not going to act. And if
there is going to be a victory it will come through somebody else,
and there might not be a victory at all.
If
you are afraid of the unknown, know this: God is mighty. He can
handle it.
But
what if it’s like this…? God can handle it.
But what if it’s
worse? God can handle it.
But what if there’s a lion? God can
handle it. Jesus is the lion, and He is on your side.
Get going!
IMAGINATION
Who
could have imagined what God was going to do through this timid
little guy threshing wheat in a wine press?
That’s our problem. We are so fast to imagine the worst. And so slow to imagine what God can do. We can imagine all the things that the enemy can do. But thinking God might be able to help, that He might be able to do something… that’s silly. Nah.
No! We often have this backwards.
EPHESIANS 3:20 NIV Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
Is
there stuff out there we don’t know? Sure. There always will be.
But can God handle the worst of it? YES! Because he made it all in
the first place!
If you want to use your imagination, think about all the things that God can do.
He’s got solutions that you would never think of in a million years.
1 CORINTHIANS 2:9 NIV However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—
Don’t
fear the unknown. Get excited about the unknown.
I don’t know
what God is going to do next, but I have a feeling it is going to be
awesome!
Fear
prevents. Fear inhibits. Fear holds you back. What is God calling you
to do, but you’re holding yourself back because you don’t know
what will happen?
Stop
imagining the worst case scenario. Start imagining all the incredible
things God can do… through you! Come on, mighty warrior, God can
use you in ways that you have never even imagined. Just trust Him. He
is with you. Be bold. Take a step of faith.
View all episodes
By Redemption Church Plano Texas
5
11 ratings
https://youtu.be/vOth7v1hAow
In order to spice things up a bit, we are going to “quote and quote” go over some things that spook us. We have talked about the fear of man, the fear of the supernatural. But today we are going to talk about the fear of the unknown.
Church,
I have to confess. I really like horror movies.
God can use all
things for good; horror movies are partly responsible for me being a
part of Redemption Church.
Be
real. God can use you as you are. You are unique; God can work with
that.
Anyways, I like horror movies. I’ve seen a lot of them.
What
is the scariest thing in horror movies?
Is it the monster?
Is
it the human monster?
Is it the gore?
Is it the jump
scares?
Is it the idea that this thing could be real?
Nope.
Turn to someone and say, “I don’t know.”
FEAR
OF THE UNKNOWN
It’s
the fear of the unknown.
Today we’re going to be talking
about the fear of the unknown.
The
unknown can be terrifying.
In movies, it’s the nervousness
that the killer is hiding somewhere.
chi-chi-chi-ah-ah-ah
Something
awful is about to happen, but we don’t know where or when…
The
unknown is much scarier than the monster.
Fear
of the unknown manifests in different forms.
Fear of the
dark.
Fear of death.
I
got bad news for you church. You’re xenophobic.
Turn to
someone and say, “You’re xenophobic.”
The
word “xenophobic” has been used a lot in the news recently. What
does it mean?
From
Fearof.net: “Xenophobia is the irrational sensation of fear
experienced about a person or a group of persons as well as
situations that are perceived as strange or foreign. It is the fear
of anything that is beyond one’s comfort zone.”
Do
you get uncomfortable when you’re not in control, when you’re not
sure what is going to happen? Do you get nervous when you don’t
know?
We
all do.
And
it is God’s fault.
IMAGINATION
God
blesses us all with an imagination.
As
we get older we tend to misuse it.
“What
if…?” …………………..
When
we face the unknown, our minds can fill in the gaps with the worst
case scenario.
In
some ways, that can be prudent. It is good to be careful and
anticipate problems.
But taken to the extreme it can be
debilitating.
We
all face the unknown, every day. If imagine that it is always filled
with the worst of the worst, our lives would be terrifying.
FEAR
PREVENTS…
Fear
prevents us from doing things.
Fear
prevents us from being who God has called us to be.
Let’s
look at an example from scripture. It’s in one of my favorite books
of the Bible:
Judges.
We’re
going to take a look at the story of Gideon. You may remember his
victory. You may remember the fleece. But there are a few details
that tend to get forgotten.
Here’s
the backstory: Israel had strayed from God.
JUDGES 6:5-6 NIV They (the Midianites) came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
The Israelites had a reasonable fear, but let us hear God’s solution.
JUDGES 6:11-12 NIV The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
He
is threshing wheat in a winepress. Does this sound like a mighty
warrior?
JUDGES 6:13 NIV “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
JUDGES 6:14 NIV The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”
JUDGES 6:15 NIV “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
JUDGES 6:16 NIV The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
Long
story short, Gideon prepares a meal for this angel. The angel touches
it with its staff and it erupts into flames.
JUDGES 6:22 NIV When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
JUDGES 6:23 NIV But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
Are you listening, Gideon?
JUDGES 6:25-26 NIV That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. 26 Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering.”
Gideon
does it. The next day the people of the town want to kill him, but he
escapes.
But
then, when it’s time to deal with the Midianites… He’s not so
sure.
Judges 6:36-38 NIV
Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.
After all that has happened,
Gideon says, “I don’t know… I need a miracle to be sure.”
And
God does it! Okay, so we should be ready to go at this point, right?
NO!!!
Judges 6:39-40 NIV
Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.
What?!?!
Do we do this? We’ve seen
God do amazing things in the past. We believe. God calls us to do
something… and we’re not so sure. I don’t know. God, is that
really you?
Do you really want me to do that? Maybe if you show
me a miracle I’ll know it’s you.
Okay, but that might have been
a fluke. Can I get one more miracle?
Yes. We all do that. And we do
it when God calls us to much less threatening things than fighting an
army that cannot be counted. We do that when God calls us to share
our faith.
Why? Why do we do this?
Because there is so much we don’t know.
What if it doesn’t
work? What if I look stupid? What if I do it wrong? What if they
think I’m a weirdo? What if…
Child, where is your faith?!
In the first week of this
series Pastor Chris mentioned that fear is faith in the wrong things.
When we fear something we have
more faith in its ability to harm us, than in God’s ability to
protect us.
When we fear the unknown we
are putting our faith in things that DO NOT EXIST!
Lord, thank you for your
patience with us.
FEAR
PREVENTS…
Gideon was the one called to
deliver his nation and defeat this oppressive army.
But he
almost let his fear of the unknown prevent his country from getting
saved.
What are you doing?
What is fear preventing you
from doing? What has God called you to do, but you haven’t done it
because… well, I just don’t know…?
But if you’re lazy… (like
me) fear of the unknown does make a great excuse.
PROVERBS 22:13 NIV The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!”
FEAR PREVENTS…
I can’t go out. Something
bad might happen. I’ll just stay on the couch and watch more
Netflix.
I can’t step out in faith.
Something bad might happen. STOP IT!!!
Brothers and sisters, God
has called you to do mighty things, and you are letting your fear of
things that don’t exist prevent these mighty things from taking
place!
Get going! And if there is a
lion outside, we’ll deal with it. God is with you! That lion should
be afraid of you!
Look, I know it’s not always
easy. There is a lot we don’t know. This world can be a dangerous
place. And there is an enemy out there that wants to kill, steal, and
destroy.
But what do you put your faith
in?
There is a lot we don’t
know. It is unknown to us. But it is known to God.
You know what else we don’t
know? We don’t know the incredible things that God can do through
us.
Back
to the story of Gideon. So NOW
Gideon is convinced… and he raises an army.
But God says,
“Nope that’s too many people. Gideon, your army is too big.”
JUDGES 7:3 NIV “Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
Note,
when God has something that He wants done, if you’re too afraid,
he’ll let you go home. He will find someone else to get the job
done.
Remember,
they are preparing to fight an army that is impossible to count.
Now
Gideon is down to 10,000 soldiers. Guess what? Still too many.
So
God has Gideon tell the soldiers to go and drink some water and some
drank it with their hands but a few put their faces down and lapped
it up.
JUDGES 7:7 NIV The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”
What??!?
300? How is this going to work out? What is going to happen?
I
don’t know but God is at work, and with him all things are
possible.
It
gets even better.
JUDGES 7:16 NIV Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.
Alright
men, I know we’re vastly outnumbered, but we’ve got superior
weaponry.
Everybody take a trumpet and a jar. Careful there’s
a torch in there…
I
DON’T KNOW HOW THIS CAN POSSIBLY WORK OUT!!!
The truth is, it
can’t. Except God is involved, and so it does.
JUDGES 7:20 NIV The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
JUDGES 7:21 NIV While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.
Who
is afraid now? But wait…
JUDGES 7:22 NIV When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled…
The
Midianites were afraid… of the unknown. How many soldiers are out
there?
I don’t know. Can we beat them? I don’t know. Should
we run? Probably.
And
they were so scared that they drew their swords and started attacking
each other. I’m running for my life, and I’m going to murder
anyone who doesn’t get out of my way fast enough! They started
killing themselves; Gideon’s army didn’t even have to fight.
Again,
take note, if you give yourself over to fear, to fear of the unknown,
you will start destroying yourself.
But
did you see what God did there? That victory was impossible. It could
not have been known ahead of time.
If
you’re afraid of the unknown, and you’re not going to act until
you know how it will work out. Then you are not going to act. And if
there is going to be a victory it will come through somebody else,
and there might not be a victory at all.
If
you are afraid of the unknown, know this: God is mighty. He can
handle it.
But
what if it’s like this…? God can handle it.
But what if it’s
worse? God can handle it.
But what if there’s a lion? God can
handle it. Jesus is the lion, and He is on your side.
Get going!
IMAGINATION
Who
could have imagined what God was going to do through this timid
little guy threshing wheat in a wine press?
That’s our problem. We are so fast to imagine the worst. And so slow to imagine what God can do. We can imagine all the things that the enemy can do. But thinking God might be able to help, that He might be able to do something… that’s silly. Nah.
No! We often have this backwards.
EPHESIANS 3:20 NIV Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,
Is
there stuff out there we don’t know? Sure. There always will be.
But can God handle the worst of it? YES! Because he made it all in
the first place!
If you want to use your imagination, think about all the things that God can do.
He’s got solutions that you would never think of in a million years.
1 CORINTHIANS 2:9 NIV However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—
Don’t
fear the unknown. Get excited about the unknown.
I don’t know
what God is going to do next, but I have a feeling it is going to be
awesome!
Fear
prevents. Fear inhibits. Fear holds you back. What is God calling you
to do, but you’re holding yourself back because you don’t know
what will happen?
Stop
imagining the worst case scenario. Start imagining all the incredible
things God can do… through you! Come on, mighty warrior, God can
use you in ways that you have never even imagined. Just trust Him. He
is with you. Be bold. Take a step of faith.