6/22/08 The Two Greatest Fears In Life

I know we are involved in an extended series on spiritual growth -

what it is, how it takes place in our lives.

And I suppose what I’m going to do this morning

is a one week step out of that series.

But then again, maybe it will end up being the heart of the whole thing.

I want to take this morning

to talk about what I believe to be

the two greatest fears in life,

the two fears

that are used most effectively by Satan

in his relentless warfare against God

and against us.

They are fears we rarely deal with on the conscious level,

fears we keep tucked away out of sight -

the first because we don’t know how to fix it,

and the second because, if what we fear is really true,

the implications are simply devastating to life as we know it.

And of course I don’t just want to bring these fears out into the open,

but I also want to offer some thoughts

about how we can find freedom from them,

how we can break the tremendous power they exert over our lives.

It may not come as a surprise to you

to know that both of these fears

are bound up in our relationship with our God.

I don’t know whether you think about Him much on a conscious level.

The very fact that you’re here this morning,

or choosing to read these words in print

would seem to indicate that you do invest at least some conscious thought

into you relationship with Him.

I can remember a little of the time in my own life

before He intruded into my world.

I can remember what it was like

to have little or no real awareness of Him.

I can remember having my own little collection of God-ideas,

my own theories about Him,

my own assumptions,

my own beliefs.

They were not unlike my political beliefs at the time.

They mattered to me at some level,

and made me feel qualified to enter into discussions about Him

and offer opinions about Him

in much the same way as I would offer opinions and observations

about the presidential candidates.

But they were thoughts that were...well...outside of me,

if you can understand what I mean.

They were a block of beliefs, and opinions, and knowledge

that I would haul out and sift through

whenever it was necessary to do so -

sort of like algebra, or what knowledge I had about the Civil War.

I certainly didn’t begin each day

with any personal awareness of Him.

Some of you are at this point in your own relationship with God.

You’ve managed to close yourself off from Him pretty well up to this point in your life.

When you listen to me,

if you choose to listen at all,

you bring what you believe is an intellectual objectivity to what you hear,

examining where you may agree with me,

and where you see things very differently.

You may even take pride in your objectivity

and in your ability to evaluate a wide range of God-ideas

without allowing yourself to get pulled into any one of them too deeply.

Or possibly, like myself during that time of my life,

you may not think about God at all,

except when you are forced into it.

But either way,

I think the first great fear I want to talk about this morning

is most common at this phase of our lives,

before we have any real, personal spirit awareness of His existence.

Certainly we have an intellectual awareness of His being there,

but we have no personal awareness of His presence with us.

In the terms we’ve been using in our study of Peter’s letter,

it is before we have any epignosis of our God.

And the fear is simply this -

it is the fear that this God, whoever or whatever He is,

if He even exists at all,

doesn’t love us, doesn’t even like us very much.

The basis for this fear is purely logical, of course.

We know, even if we’ve never personally picked up a Bible and read a word of it,

that God has lots to say

about the importance of our doing what’s right.

The very fact that the human language includes the word “sin”

intensifies this fear.

A sin is, of course, an act we commit that is contrary to what God has said.

It is our moral offence against God.

And we all have a considerable collection of these sins -

things we’ve done,

things we’ve said,

things we’ve thought and felt that we know God wouldn’t like.

That’s the first contributing factor in the fear -

the fact that we’ve all done things that God might not approve of.

And then the other “logical” ingredient in this first great fear

is that surely God must like us...love us on the basis of our behavior,

our performance.

Of course God loved Ronald Reagan far more than He loved Hitler or Mussolini.

Of course he loved the Apostle Paul

more than he loved Ted Bundy.

And surely He likes us more

when we do what He wants us to do,

and likes us less,

or probably doesn’t like us at all when we mess up.

How could it be otherwise?

And the fact that we’ve all messed up,

and the reasonable assumption that our behavior must in some way,

at some level effect how He feels about us

places within us a natural fear of our God.

It is a fear that will push us in one of two possible directions.

For many people

it will push them into a determined effort

to avoid the whole GOD thing at any cost.

We will skillfully loose ourselves in the pursuit of human love relationships,

or the accumulation of things,

or seeking status or power in whatever target group we may select.

We will convince ourselves that God must certainly grade on the curve,

and we are nowhere near as bad as most,

and probably plenty good enough to keep us away from His wrath,

or we will tell ourselves that He’s not even there,

or more likely we will simply refuse to think about Him.

It is a reasonable, sensible approach

to a God who surely doesn’t like us very much.

And for many others

the fear of an angry God

will have exactly the opposite effect.

Rather than driving them into an attempt to ignore Him,

it will drive them into an attempt to earn His approval,

which, of course, is the deep, rich soil in which all religions thrive.

It will begin by carefully selecting the religious system

that fits best with our own personality.

Then we will learn the rules of our chosen religion.

We will learn the things

that our chosen system tells us will win God’s approval,

the things that will increase our standing in His eyes.

And it becomes our fig leaves

with which we attempt to hide our shame

and appease the righteous anger of our God.

So there it is,

the first great fear we must all confront -

the fear that our God doesn’t love us,

doesn’t even like us,

the fear that all there is in this life

is whatever little bit of fleeting pleasure we can find here and now,

followed by a terrifying judgement

before a wrath-filled God

who has been disgusted with us from the very beginning.

And before I share with you the second,

and in my opinion the far greater fear we face,

I can’t leave this first one without offering a few words of hope.

I certainly understand the basis for the fear.

I’m all too aware of my own moral failures before God

and I understand why it would seem so reasonable for Him to pour out His wrath on me.

Some of you may even think

that because I’m a preacher

it might have been my attempt to appease that wrath

that drove me into this profession.

But the truth is

exactly the opposite is true.

Knowing my weaknesses

and my limitations all too well,

I actually felt very strongly

that He and I would probably get along far better

if I did not become a preacher.

I was certain from the beginning

that His reputation would be far better off

if it did not have me officially tied to it,

and I told him repeatedly in my younger days

that He and I would both be much more pleased

if I stayed as far away from organized religion as possible.

But He felt differently about the whole thing

and in the end I agreed

on the condition that He would fix whatever I messed up in the process.

But my point is that I do understand perfectly

why we fear Him,

why we feel anxiety in our relationship with Him,

why we cling to our religion in an attempt to quiet the fears.

But if you’re still worried about this whole thing,

I really can help.

In fact, I have some amazing

and incredibly good news for you.

Not only does your Creator not dislike you,

but the truth is

He has delighted in your existence since the day of your conception,

and He eagerly seeks a friendship with you.

God eagerly seeks a friendship with you!

God likes you.

God doesn’t like “good” people more than “bad” people,

because, you see, there are no “good” people.

ROM 3:10-11 as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;

To be good before God

is to be sinless.

Not just to have less sin than the person next to you,

but to be sinless

from the day of your birth

until you breath your last breath.

And there is none righteous, not even one.

Not Paul,

not Peter,

not Isaiah,

or the virgin Mary,

and certainly not this old grey preacher.

God’s delight in you,

His joy in your existence,

His eager longing for a friendship with you

has nothing whatsoever to do

with whether you’ve been bad or good.

He loves you simply because He loves you,

and He likes that unique person you are

more than you will ever allow yourself to believe.

And what is it He wants from you?

Does He want you to try to clean up your life a little... or a lot?

Does He have a series of “faithfulness” and “sincerity” tests you must pass

before He will consider allowing you into His presence and His love?

I like the way He said it through Jeremiah.

JER 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”

Or through Paul...

EPH 2:4-6 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus...

Or through John...

JOH 3:16 "For God loved you so much, that He gave His only ... Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

JOH 3:17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge you, but that you should be saved through Him.

Or through the poet...

If we with ink the ocean filled

And were the sky of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the oceans dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky.

Let me put it this way.

You know that first great fear,

the fear that God doesn’t love you,

that He doesn’t even like you,

that maybe He doesn’t even know your name?

Well, you can take it off your worry list forever.

It is the first great lie of Satan

of who our God really is

and how He really feels about us,

and what He is offering us through Jesus Christ.

Which brings me, then,

to the second great fear of our lives,

and the one, I think, that surpasses the first

in its ability to rob us of the quality of life our God wants us to know.

The first great fear is that our God doesn’t love us, doesn’t even like us,

and our second great fear

is that He does indeed love us - deeply, eternally, passionately.

You see, if that were true,

if the Creator of all that is,

the One who spoke and brought into being all that exists,

the One who knows the end of all things from the very beginning,

the One who works all the affairs of the human race for His purposes,

if that God truly does know you personally,

and cherishes you deeply,

if even now He eagerly looks forward to the day

when you will stand before Him face-to-face

so that He can wrap His almighty arms around you

and tell you one-to-one how much He cares for you and about you,

if that were true,

it would more profoundly alter our lives than anything else in life could ever do.

In fact, it is the one truth

that most terrifies us.

Certainly we don’t want God to be angry at us,

but we are even more afraid of the possibility

that He may truly, deeply, personally love us, delight in us, cherish us.

Because if that were true,

it would mean that we would have to rethink everything He’s ever said to us

and everything He’s ever done in our lives

in the light of that kind of love.

And it would mean

that we would have to reshape some of the deepest support pillars of our lives.

It would certainly have a profound affect

on our priorities in life,

on our goals,

on how we approach our time, our possessions, our relationships.

What it really means

is that we would loose the one thing we cling to with such determination -

our control over our own life.

You see,

what we think we want

is a God who isn’t angry at us,

but one who also doesn’t mess about too deeply in our lives.

Maybe I can help us see this best

by coming at it through our experience with human relationships.

Have you ever been truly loved by another person?

I’m not talking about parent/child love here.

I’m talking about discovering that another human being

truly does love you, care about you deeply?

And if so, have you allowed yourself to receive their love

and love them in return?

I hope so,

and if so than I want you to look at how that love relationship affected your life.

How did it affect your priorities,

your life decisions,

your goals?

Did you find yourself rebuilding your life

in a way that kept that person close to you?

Did you find yourself making changes in your own life

in ways that you thought would please this person who loved you?

Did you, over time, find yourself becoming more and more like them,

modeling yourself after them,

becoming whatever you could be in order to make their life better?

Nothing has the power to change us more deeply,

more profoundly,

than discovering that we are loved,

and allowing ourselves to receive that love.

We are wired by God in such a way

that once we allow love into our life

it restructures and redefines our very existence.

And is it any wonder, then,

that we so deeply fear the personal discovery of God’s love for us?

For you see,

to allow ourselves to enter into an awareness of His love for us

is to volunteer for tremendous upheaval in our lives.

It means our God can no longer be simply a helpful resource in our lives,

Someone we reach out to when we hurt or when we fear.

It means He would become the very center of our existence.

It would mean that all those things He’s said to us

are not just true,

but precious beyond measure.

It would mean that His priorities would become our priorities,

that His values become our values,

and that knowing His presence with us and living in it is our deepest joy.

In short,

the discovery of His love for us

would quite simply mess up our entire life at the deepest possible level.

And we would loose control forever.

I had a good friend of mine ask me recently

how I came into my own discovery of God’s personal love for me.

Though the truth is that I have only a very tiny glimpse of that love,

I’ll share with you part of what I said to him in response.

I told him that I came into my own discovery of God’s love

mostly through desperation and failure.

I’ll just say that in His love

God arranged events in my early walk with Him

in a way that made it abundantly clear that left to my own efforts

I simply couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t live the life He wanted me to live,

I couldn’t be the person He wanted me to be.

There was a Bill Gaither song that was popular during my early Christian life,

a song that captured well my own experience.

Something beautiful, something good,

All my confusion He understood.

All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife,

But He made something beautiful of my life.

I understood that,

especially that part about what I had to offer Him.

And the beginning of my own discovery of His love

came when I saw His response to me

when I came to Him in my own brokenness and failure

and told Him that’s all He gets

and if He wanted anything else

He’d have to do it Himself inside me.

And He did.

But more than that,

He did what He did in a way that communicated to me

the amazing truth that He was doing it because I matter that much to Him,

because He loves me.

So, if you’re struggling with this second great fear,

the fear that just maybe God truly does love you the way He says He does,

maybe I can help a little here too.

First of all,

I would simply ask for your honesty

about how things are working out for you

in those areas where you are still terrified of His love.

I know you’re afraid that, if you do let His love in,

He’ll make you give up all those plans for the future you’ve been hanging onto

and probably ask you to reevaluate the way you’ve approached certain relationships in your life,

relationships you really don’t want to look at.

But honestly, how’s it going with Him out there on the fringes?

How’s your tension level when you get up each morning,

or when you go to bed?

Do you like the way those relationships are going?

I know you’ve got some real reservations about some of the things He’s said,

and some real fears about some of the things He might want to say

if you ever let down that protective wall of resistance against His love.

But is the approach you’re taking right now

filling your spirit with joy?

The truth is

I don’t think any of us come easily into the knowledge of God’s love.

I think most of us need to try it our way first.

We need to keep Him on the fringes of our lives

while we lunge after those things

that we feel we must do...or not do

in order to make us happy.

The problem is

that happiness does not come from where we think it does.

And the very thing we most fear about our immersing our life in Him

is most often our great and glorious doorway

into the life our spirit longs for the most.

Maybe the best way I can end my comments this morning

is by reminding us of the first words God spoke to the shepherds,

and to Mary,

and to Joseph,

and then to the disciples following His resurrection.

At those critical points where He sought entrance into their lives

and they knew instinctively

that if they let Him in

it would change their lives dramatically and forever,

do you know what He said?

Do not be afraid...

do not be afraid...

do not be afraid any more.

And to you I say the same.

Do not fear His love.

Do not fear what it will mean to your life

if you choose to let Him love you.