Fear Not

(show picture of crocodile)

G-day mates! I see some familiar faces from Crocodile Dock. I wonder if you remember our theme from the Dock?

Fear Not! That’s right. There are lots of things to be afraid of out there. I used to be afraid of crocs! I would see a croc and I would shout, “Crikey!”

But then one day I saw a crocs and I looked them in the eye and realized there was nothing really to be afraid of. . . (show pair of croc shoes)

There are lots of things that are more scary than these. The other day, believe it or not, there was this in our yard (show bear picture). A bear is a beautiful and usually gentle creature. But a bear is a wild animal. Using the good sense I taught them, my boys watched the bear from inside the house. A bear is a scary. But there are things more scary than bears.

What are you afraid of?

I knew this girl once who had a fear of flying. She had gone through a traumatic experience on a plane as a little girl and had never quite gotten over it. We were talking about her fear once day and we talked about how God can help us with our fears.

“Don’t you know, “ I told her, ‘that’s he’s with you everywhere? Some of Jesus’ last words were, ‘I am with you always.”

“No,” she laughed. “What he actually said was, ‘Low – I am with you always.”

In our Old Testament lesson we read how Moses has brought the people of God to the edge of the Land of Canaan. Remember, they had left Egypt and slavery years earlier, 40 years to be exact, to get here. It took them so long to make the journey because, well, they had been afraid to obey God, if that makes any sense. More on that later. But finally, after 40 years of traveling they arrive at the edge of their destination. This the Land of Promise. This is the Land where their dreams will come true. All they have to do is go in and take it.

So Moses chooses twelve men to go spy out the land, “see what the land is like and see what the people are like, whether they are strong or weak, few or many.” Numbers 13.17-18

What those twelve men saw when they crossed in the Jordan valley was pleasing to their eyes. Here is what they reported back to Moses:

“We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.” Numbers 13.27

The Land of Canaan exceeded their expectations. Say goodbye to years of wandering. Say goodbye to the slavery of Egypt and the desert wasteland of Arabia. Promised Land- we are there!

Moses and the Israelites must have gone wild when they heard this report. Their eyes got wide. They were ready to pack and move. They were ready to dance – when the celebration was prematurely cut off by one of the spies – “but we can’t go there.”

What?

“We can’t go into the Promised Land. We can’t go there.”

Why not?

“There are giants. The people are large and strong and their cities and large and srong and compared to them we look like grasshoppers.”

Crikey! This is not what Moses wanted to here. These spies were hand-picked men, known for their derring-do and wits. And here they are saying we might as well turn around and go back to Egypt. In fact, let’s start making plans now. These supposedly brave men were simply convinced and paralyzed by the fear of what they saw.


Do you know what the most dangerous fear is? Fear itself.

“Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.” Henry David Thoreau

Years later, in a time of anxiety for our country, President John F. Kennedy will tell the American people, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

It should not be a surprise to us that the single command in the Bible that occurs more often than any other – God’s most frequently repeated instruction- is stated in two words:

Fear not.

Yup. There are 366 “fear not” verses in the Bible, one for every day of the year, including one for leap year. Why do you think God repeats this command so often? Maybe because fear is the number one reason why people are tempted to avoid doing what God asks them to do. God tells you to go talk to that new family on the block and invite them over to your house, but you avoid it because. . .you’re afraid. God suggests to you that volunteering for that community mission project would be a great use of your time, but you avoid it because. . .you’re afraid. God prompts you to give more than is comfortable for you, but you avoid it because . . .you’re afraid.

Avoidance kills an inner sense of confidence and esteem. This is why praise from others, even when it is sincere, often does not help much. Avoiders become experts at “impression management” – pretending to be what they think will be acceptable to others. But even when we are successful at managing others’ impressions of us and eliciting praise, inside we discount it: If you only saw the truth about me, you wouldn’t admire me. You’re just admiring what I want you to see in me.

Those spies were big Avoiders. They presented their report with the classic good news/bad news formula. You know what I mean. It’s like the two baseball-loving friends who agree that whichever one dies first will come back and let the other know if there’s baseball in heaven. The first one to die contacts his friend and says, “The good news is that there is baseball in heaven. The bad news is that you’re pitching Friday.”

And in the case of the spies, their good news is totally overshadowed by their bad news. In fact, if their bad news is to be believed and acted upon, then their good news is really worthless news. It’s no news.

But here’s where and why this story turns – among those twelve spies were two men who were not avoiders. Their names were Caleb and Joshua. They brought a minority report – they said in effect, “Yeah, the people are pretty large and their pretty strong – okay yeah, their GIANTS, but we can take them.” Caleb and Joshua were challengers were the others were avoiders. Caleb and Joshua said “Fear not, we can do this! Are we not God’s chosen people? Won’t God surely deliver what he has promised?”

Folks, this is the point where you either believe and trust or you don’t. There are a lot of things to be afraid of in our lives – losing your job, losing a relationship, finding that lump, going through that surgery, facing that shadow of death – there are Giants in the land these days. But hey, aren’t you here because you believe God is bigger than the giants in our lives? Isn’t the One who has called you able to see you through gigantic problems and challenges?

The best way to handle giants is to confront them- take up the challenge and put your trust in your Creator and your Redeemer!

Joshua and Caleb were right and those ten others were wrong. If it was up to the ten there would be no Jewish people today. Or they would be just a small tribe wandering the deserts talking about what might have been. It’s no coincidence that when Moses died, God instructed the leadership to go to Joshua. Here was God’s reminder to Joshua when he took the reigns of leadership:

“I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1.9

(if there’s time, we’ll show Day 4 of the VBS slideshow before our prayer time)