The following message is from The Crossroads Community Church message series "Chase the Lion." The messages are inspired by and adapted from the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and the accompanying messages by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.
Alright, well, obviously, today we are talking about fears, overcoming your fears. Now, remember, we are in a new series called “Chase the Lion,” and it’s based on this passage in the Old Testament about a guy named Benaiah whose story is found in 2 Samuel 23:20-23:
Remember, last week, I said that day probably seemed to Benaiah like a very bad day. But just a couple of verses later, the Bible tells us that King David made Benaiah the captain of his bodyguard. What better qualification for being a body-guard than saying, “One snowy day, I chased a lion into a pit, jumped into the pit with the lion and killed it." So, what seemed like a horrible, no-good, very bad day to Benaiah becomes the source of what God wants to do in his life in the future. And that’s what this series is all about. It’s about how God wants to use the biggest chal-lenges in your life to bring about the incredible, awesome, amazing life that he has in store for you.
During this seven-week series, we are exploring seven lion chasing skills: defying odds, facing fears, overcoming adversity, embracing uncertainty, taking risks, seizing opportunities, and looking foolish. So, today we’re going to look at overcoming your fears. It is so easy to read about a lion encounter that happened three thousand years ago and totally underestimate the fear factor. I’m sure there were nights Benaiah woke up for the rest of his life in a cold sweat because of dreaming about that lion. Sure, he killed the lion. But not before it scared the living daylights out of him. He was inches away from thirty bared teeth. He was in a dark, confined space on slippery ground with a 500 pound lion that was faster, more agile, more sure-footed, stronger, and could see better than him. I don’t think he ever forgot the smell of the lion’s bloody breath. And the sound of the roar had to echo in his mind’s ear forever!
I don’t care how battle-tested or battle-scarred you are. I don’t care how crazy or courageous you are. You don’t come face-to-face with a five-hundred pound lion without experiencing sheer terror or pure fear! But one thing sets lion chasers apart. They don’t run away from the things that scare them! Normal people don’t chase lions, but lion chasers aren’t normal. Lion chasers chase their fears!
God wants you to be a lion-chaser, to chase your fears. Look at 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Fear will keep you sidelined in life. You will miss out on the incredible adventure of the life that God has called you to if you allow fear to dictate what you do or do not do in life
.
So, how do you overcome the fears in your life? Three things: First, you unlearn your fears. Psychologists believe that we are born with only two fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Every other fear is learned. We learn our fears through our experiences, things that happen to us, through what we are taught, through what other people say to us. All the other fears in our life are learned. Now, here’s the good news. If our
fears are learned, they can also be unlearned.
Unfortunately, unlearning something is twice as hard as learning it. It’s like missing your exit on the interstate. You have to drive all the way to the next exit and double back just to get to where you needed to be. You wind up going twice as far to get to the right place.
To overcome the fears in our lives, we have to unlearn some things in life. Some of the things we believe, some of the hangups we have, some of the things that cause fear and anxiety in our lives are wrong, and we have to unlearn them to overcome our fears. For instance if you have been taught to believe that you aren’t a success, then you probably aren’t going to take risks in life. So, you have to unlearn some things about yourself. Check out Romans 12:1:
A large chunk of Jesus’ teaching was about helping people to unlearn what they had been taught. Look at Matthew 5:21-22: “You have heard that it was said … But I tell you…” Jesus is saying, “What you have heard is wrong. Now let me give it to you the right way.” Jesus comes into our lives and he reprograms our old ways of seeing things, our old fears about life.
How can you, in a very practical way, unlearn your fears? My brother does schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s research. He tells me that they have discovered that people who spend thirty minutes a day doing a crossword puzzle or Sudoku or some kind of mental challenge, don’t get Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is caused by a buildup of plaque between the connections in the brain. What they have discovered is that the crossword puzzle people, their minds are constantly growing new connections, so that Alzheimer’s cannot take effect. Do you want to know how to unlearn the fears in your life? Spend thirty minutes a day in God’s word, reading, praying, meditating on it, and before you know it, your mind will be reframed around your old fears. We call it having a quiet time. It’s a habit I want you to learn to have, because it is the best way to unlearn the old fears in your life.
Now, the devil doesn’t want you to unlearn your fears. In fact, one of the greatest tools Satan has to use against us is to keep us captive to our old fears. He wants to keep you crippled and afraid and paralyzed by your fears so that you won’t chase the lions and do incredible things for God. But I want you to see what Jesus says about the Devil: John 8:44:
But, it’s not enough just to unlearn our fears. You have to use your new knowledge to face your fears. That’s the second way to overcome your fears. You’ve got to stand up to them – and conquer them. Benaiah jumps in the pit with the lion.
A few years ago, our family went on a camping trip up in Oklahoma to a place called Robber’s Cave, and we were doing a little hiking. Well, we come to this place called Devil’s Slide. And Devil’s Slide is this rock face that’s, I don’t know, about a hundred feet up at about a 45 degree angle, and it’s slick. I mean, there are very few handholds. Well, I send LaRissa and the girls on ahead, and I say, “Hey, James (who was about eight years old at the time), you want to go up it?” Well, he was pretty nervous, but he said, “Yeah!” So we take off up this thing, just kind of crawling on our hands and feet. And at some points, I’m getting kind of nervous. And I say to James, “Man, this is pretty tough, huh? This is kind of scary?” And he says, “Yeah!” But then I say, “But we can do it! We can make it! You’re awesome!” Why did I do that? Because I want my kids to learn to face their fears, to take on challenges, not to be afraid of taking risks. My kids were a little nervous when we took them to Mexico last year, but I don’t want them to back down from the big things God wants them to do in life.
Think of your fears as mental lions. If we don’t learn to chase those fears, they can keep us at bay for the rest of our lives. But as a loving Father, God helps us to unlearn the fears that keep us from living the life he wants for us. Look at 1 John 4:18: “Where God's love is, there is no fear, because God's perfect love drives out fear.” The result of love is fearlessness. As we learn how much God loves us, we can overcome the fear that paralyzes us and neutralizes our effectiveness in life.
I’ve been told, there are 365 times in the Bible that God says, “Fear not, don’t be afraid, do not tremble.” That’s one for every day of the year. Now, I just want to show you a few of those, and show you some of our common fears that God says we don’t have to be afraid of. 1 John 4:18 that we just read is actually about the fear of punishment or the fear of judgment. That’s guilt, fear derived from past failures. And God says, you don’t have to be afraid of that if you have entered into a perfect love relationship with me.
Look at the next one. Dt. 31:8: “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Fear of being alone. Some of you have that fear. You’re afraid because you feel all alone in life. Or you wonder, what if I never find the right person? What if my spouse dies? What if I lose my family? And God says, “You don’t ever have to be afraid of being alone, because I will never leave you.”
1 Chronicles 22:13: “Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and coura-geous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” The fear of failure. What if I don’t get a good job? What if I get laid off? What if I don’t live up to everyone’s expectations of me? What if I try and don’t succeed? The fear of failure cripples a lot of people. A lot of people wind up not attempting anything big in life because they are afraid of what will happen if they fail. So they wind up sitting on the sidelines in life. So, God gives a promise for that.
Isaiah 44:8: “Do not tremble; do not be afraid. Have I not proclaimed from ages past what my purposes are for you? You are my witnesses—is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock—not one!” This is a big one right now, fear for the future? What about my finances? What about my job? What about gas prices? What about the economy? What about my house payment, my grocery bill, my retirement account? Listen, I am not fearful about the future, and I’m a guy who left a better paying job to start a new church, so why am I not afraid? Because God is in control, and it’s all working out according to his plan.
Face your fears. Listen, for some of you, the best thing that could happen to you is for your fear to become reality. Because then you would discover that it is not the end of the world. You can get through it. You can face up to it, and it’s not the end of the world.
God wants us to face our fears. The Bible says that the Devil is like a roaring lion constantly looking for someone to devour. And how are we supposed to handle the Devil? Look at Jas. 4:7: “Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.” God doesn’t want us to run away from the enemy, to run away from our fears. He wants to raise up a generation of lion chasers who don’t just run away from evil, but who put the enemy to flight. Face your fears.
But there’s one more key component missing for us to really be able to overcome our fears. You have to have faith instead of fears. You see, faith is the opposite of fear, believing in God and depending on God whatever the circumstances that we may face in life. You can’t face up to the things that scare you most in life without the power and strength that come from dependence on God. Psalm 46:1-2 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” If God is your refuge and strength, what do you have to fear? Listen, if you believe that God is absolutely in control, that nothing, absolutely nothing in life can happen to you unless God allows it, and if you believe that God loves you more than anyone else in all the world, then what do you have to fear? When each of my kids were little, I would throw them up in the air and catch them. Now, that was scary at first, but they came to learn that I would always catch them and they came to love it.
Instead of fear, we have faith. Check out 1 Peter 3:14-15: “‘Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.’ But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” You don’t have to be driven by fear like everybody else. No matter what is going on, stock market tanking, banks going under, elections and politics, grocery prices going up, jobs going away. We don’t have to fear what they fear. Because Christ is Lord. You set apart Christ as Lord in your heart, you say, Jesus you are in control no matter what, you understand that he is in charge, and suddenly there’s not a lot left to be afraid of in life.
Look with me at Romans 8:15: “So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family —calling him ‘Father, dear Father.’” When my kids are scared, they come running to their Daddy. They want me to put my arms around them, to protect them. They bury their head in my chest. They believe that everything is okay so long as they are with their Daddy. They believe that Daddy can fight off whatever it is that they have to be afraid of. With God as our Father, we don’t have to be afraid. We can depend on him for whatever we may come against in life.
So, don’t run from your fears. Don’t let fears paralyze you in life and keep you from living the kind of life you were made for. Don’t let mental lions keep you from experiencing everything God has to offer. The greatest experiences will often double as the scariest experiences. The defining moments will often double as the scariest decisions. Just imagine if you had been able to sit down with Benaiah at the end of his life, and you were to ask him what were the greatest moments in his life. What do you think he would say? Then imagine you asked him what were the scariest moments of his life. What do you think he would say? I can see Benaiah’s grandchildren crawling up in his lap and saying, “Grandpa, tell us about the lion again.” Here’s my advice to you: live your life in a way that is worth telling stories about. Quit running and start chasing!
Now, I want you to read together with me today as our confession, Psalm 91:
Alright, well, obviously, today we are talking about fears, overcoming your fears. Now, remember, we are in a new series called “Chase the Lion,” and it’s based on this passage in the Old Testament about a guy named Benaiah whose story is found in 2 Samuel 23:20-23:
“He chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it.”
Remember, last week, I said that day probably seemed to Benaiah like a very bad day. But just a couple of verses later, the Bible tells us that King David made Benaiah the captain of his bodyguard. What better qualification for being a body-guard than saying, “One snowy day, I chased a lion into a pit, jumped into the pit with the lion and killed it." So, what seemed like a horrible, no-good, very bad day to Benaiah becomes the source of what God wants to do in his life in the future. And that’s what this series is all about. It’s about how God wants to use the biggest chal-lenges in your life to bring about the incredible, awesome, amazing life that he has in store for you.
During this seven-week series, we are exploring seven lion chasing skills: defying odds, facing fears, overcoming adversity, embracing uncertainty, taking risks, seizing opportunities, and looking foolish. So, today we’re going to look at overcoming your fears. It is so easy to read about a lion encounter that happened three thousand years ago and totally underestimate the fear factor. I’m sure there were nights Benaiah woke up for the rest of his life in a cold sweat because of dreaming about that lion. Sure, he killed the lion. But not before it scared the living daylights out of him. He was inches away from thirty bared teeth. He was in a dark, confined space on slippery ground with a 500 pound lion that was faster, more agile, more sure-footed, stronger, and could see better than him. I don’t think he ever forgot the smell of the lion’s bloody breath. And the sound of the roar had to echo in his mind’s ear forever!
I don’t care how battle-tested or battle-scarred you are. I don’t care how crazy or courageous you are. You don’t come face-to-face with a five-hundred pound lion without experiencing sheer terror or pure fear! But one thing sets lion chasers apart. They don’t run away from the things that scare them! Normal people don’t chase lions, but lion chasers aren’t normal. Lion chasers chase their fears!
God wants you to be a lion-chaser, to chase your fears. Look at 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Fear will keep you sidelined in life. You will miss out on the incredible adventure of the life that God has called you to if you allow fear to dictate what you do or do not do in life
.
So, how do you overcome the fears in your life? Three things: First, you unlearn your fears. Psychologists believe that we are born with only two fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Every other fear is learned. We learn our fears through our experiences, things that happen to us, through what we are taught, through what other people say to us. All the other fears in our life are learned. Now, here’s the good news. If our
fears are learned, they can also be unlearned.
Unfortunately, unlearning something is twice as hard as learning it. It’s like missing your exit on the interstate. You have to drive all the way to the next exit and double back just to get to where you needed to be. You wind up going twice as far to get to the right place.
To overcome the fears in our lives, we have to unlearn some things in life. Some of the things we believe, some of the hangups we have, some of the things that cause fear and anxiety in our lives are wrong, and we have to unlearn them to overcome our fears. For instance if you have been taught to believe that you aren’t a success, then you probably aren’t going to take risks in life. So, you have to unlearn some things about yourself. Check out Romans 12:1:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”So, how do you do that? You do that by allowing your mind to be reframed by the teachings of the Bible. Irrational fears and misconceptions keep us from being the person God wants us to be, so we have to unlearn those old patterns, those old ways of thinking, those fears that keep us down in life. We have to allow the word of God and the teachings of Jesus to reframe the fears in our lives.
A large chunk of Jesus’ teaching was about helping people to unlearn what they had been taught. Look at Matthew 5:21-22: “You have heard that it was said … But I tell you…” Jesus is saying, “What you have heard is wrong. Now let me give it to you the right way.” Jesus comes into our lives and he reprograms our old ways of seeing things, our old fears about life.
How can you, in a very practical way, unlearn your fears? My brother does schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s research. He tells me that they have discovered that people who spend thirty minutes a day doing a crossword puzzle or Sudoku or some kind of mental challenge, don’t get Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is caused by a buildup of plaque between the connections in the brain. What they have discovered is that the crossword puzzle people, their minds are constantly growing new connections, so that Alzheimer’s cannot take effect. Do you want to know how to unlearn the fears in your life? Spend thirty minutes a day in God’s word, reading, praying, meditating on it, and before you know it, your mind will be reframed around your old fears. We call it having a quiet time. It’s a habit I want you to learn to have, because it is the best way to unlearn the old fears in your life.
Now, the devil doesn’t want you to unlearn your fears. In fact, one of the greatest tools Satan has to use against us is to keep us captive to our old fears. He wants to keep you crippled and afraid and paralyzed by your fears so that you won’t chase the lions and do incredible things for God. But I want you to see what Jesus says about the Devil: John 8:44:
“He [the Devil] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”The Devil is a liar, and he wants to keep you believing the lies of the fears you have learned in life. You have to see your fears for what they really are, lies that the devil tells you about who you are and what you are able to do in life. Unlearn those fears.
But, it’s not enough just to unlearn our fears. You have to use your new knowledge to face your fears. That’s the second way to overcome your fears. You’ve got to stand up to them – and conquer them. Benaiah jumps in the pit with the lion.
A few years ago, our family went on a camping trip up in Oklahoma to a place called Robber’s Cave, and we were doing a little hiking. Well, we come to this place called Devil’s Slide. And Devil’s Slide is this rock face that’s, I don’t know, about a hundred feet up at about a 45 degree angle, and it’s slick. I mean, there are very few handholds. Well, I send LaRissa and the girls on ahead, and I say, “Hey, James (who was about eight years old at the time), you want to go up it?” Well, he was pretty nervous, but he said, “Yeah!” So we take off up this thing, just kind of crawling on our hands and feet. And at some points, I’m getting kind of nervous. And I say to James, “Man, this is pretty tough, huh? This is kind of scary?” And he says, “Yeah!” But then I say, “But we can do it! We can make it! You’re awesome!” Why did I do that? Because I want my kids to learn to face their fears, to take on challenges, not to be afraid of taking risks. My kids were a little nervous when we took them to Mexico last year, but I don’t want them to back down from the big things God wants them to do in life.
Think of your fears as mental lions. If we don’t learn to chase those fears, they can keep us at bay for the rest of our lives. But as a loving Father, God helps us to unlearn the fears that keep us from living the life he wants for us. Look at 1 John 4:18: “Where God's love is, there is no fear, because God's perfect love drives out fear.” The result of love is fearlessness. As we learn how much God loves us, we can overcome the fear that paralyzes us and neutralizes our effectiveness in life.
I’ve been told, there are 365 times in the Bible that God says, “Fear not, don’t be afraid, do not tremble.” That’s one for every day of the year. Now, I just want to show you a few of those, and show you some of our common fears that God says we don’t have to be afraid of. 1 John 4:18 that we just read is actually about the fear of punishment or the fear of judgment. That’s guilt, fear derived from past failures. And God says, you don’t have to be afraid of that if you have entered into a perfect love relationship with me.
Look at the next one. Dt. 31:8: “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Fear of being alone. Some of you have that fear. You’re afraid because you feel all alone in life. Or you wonder, what if I never find the right person? What if my spouse dies? What if I lose my family? And God says, “You don’t ever have to be afraid of being alone, because I will never leave you.”
1 Chronicles 22:13: “Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and coura-geous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” The fear of failure. What if I don’t get a good job? What if I get laid off? What if I don’t live up to everyone’s expectations of me? What if I try and don’t succeed? The fear of failure cripples a lot of people. A lot of people wind up not attempting anything big in life because they are afraid of what will happen if they fail. So they wind up sitting on the sidelines in life. So, God gives a promise for that.
Isaiah 44:8: “Do not tremble; do not be afraid. Have I not proclaimed from ages past what my purposes are for you? You are my witnesses—is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock—not one!” This is a big one right now, fear for the future? What about my finances? What about my job? What about gas prices? What about the economy? What about my house payment, my grocery bill, my retirement account? Listen, I am not fearful about the future, and I’m a guy who left a better paying job to start a new church, so why am I not afraid? Because God is in control, and it’s all working out according to his plan.
Face your fears. Listen, for some of you, the best thing that could happen to you is for your fear to become reality. Because then you would discover that it is not the end of the world. You can get through it. You can face up to it, and it’s not the end of the world.
God wants us to face our fears. The Bible says that the Devil is like a roaring lion constantly looking for someone to devour. And how are we supposed to handle the Devil? Look at Jas. 4:7: “Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.” God doesn’t want us to run away from the enemy, to run away from our fears. He wants to raise up a generation of lion chasers who don’t just run away from evil, but who put the enemy to flight. Face your fears.
But there’s one more key component missing for us to really be able to overcome our fears. You have to have faith instead of fears. You see, faith is the opposite of fear, believing in God and depending on God whatever the circumstances that we may face in life. You can’t face up to the things that scare you most in life without the power and strength that come from dependence on God. Psalm 46:1-2 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” If God is your refuge and strength, what do you have to fear? Listen, if you believe that God is absolutely in control, that nothing, absolutely nothing in life can happen to you unless God allows it, and if you believe that God loves you more than anyone else in all the world, then what do you have to fear? When each of my kids were little, I would throw them up in the air and catch them. Now, that was scary at first, but they came to learn that I would always catch them and they came to love it.
Instead of fear, we have faith. Check out 1 Peter 3:14-15: “‘Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.’ But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” You don’t have to be driven by fear like everybody else. No matter what is going on, stock market tanking, banks going under, elections and politics, grocery prices going up, jobs going away. We don’t have to fear what they fear. Because Christ is Lord. You set apart Christ as Lord in your heart, you say, Jesus you are in control no matter what, you understand that he is in charge, and suddenly there’s not a lot left to be afraid of in life.
Look with me at Romans 8:15: “So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family —calling him ‘Father, dear Father.’” When my kids are scared, they come running to their Daddy. They want me to put my arms around them, to protect them. They bury their head in my chest. They believe that everything is okay so long as they are with their Daddy. They believe that Daddy can fight off whatever it is that they have to be afraid of. With God as our Father, we don’t have to be afraid. We can depend on him for whatever we may come against in life.
So, don’t run from your fears. Don’t let fears paralyze you in life and keep you from living the kind of life you were made for. Don’t let mental lions keep you from experiencing everything God has to offer. The greatest experiences will often double as the scariest experiences. The defining moments will often double as the scariest decisions. Just imagine if you had been able to sit down with Benaiah at the end of his life, and you were to ask him what were the greatest moments in his life. What do you think he would say? Then imagine you asked him what were the scariest moments of his life. What do you think he would say? I can see Benaiah’s grandchildren crawling up in his lap and saying, “Grandpa, tell us about the lion again.” Here’s my advice to you: live your life in a way that is worth telling stories about. Quit running and start chasing!
Now, I want you to read together with me today as our confession, Psalm 91:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
3 Surely he will save me from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover me with his feathers, and under his wings I will find refuge; his faithfulness will be my shield and rampart.
5 I will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand, but it will not come near me.
8 I will only observe with my eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If I make the Most High my dwelling-- even the LORD, who is my refuge--
10 then no harm will befall me, no disaster will come near my tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning me to guard me in all my ways;
12 they will lift me up in their hands, so that i will not strike my foot against a stone.
13 I will tread upon the lion and the cobra; I will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."
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