ALARM BELLS: "I'm Scared!"

Here are the notes from today's message at New Life Community Church.  This is the fifth in the series ALARM BELLS and is entitled "I'm Scared!"  If you desire to listen to this message, you may do so by going to our website at www.newlifesite.com.  God bless!

Alarm Bells, Part 5                                                                            Sunday, July 7, 2013

 “I’m Scared”

But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for some on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will escape, just as the Lord has said. These will be among the survivors whom the Lord has called.  Joel 2:32 (NLT)

1.      Signals

2.      Overwhelmed

3.      Unloved

4.      Skeptical

5.      Scared

Drowning People Can't Cry for Help

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, every day about ten people die from unintentional drowning. Drowning ranks fifth among the leading causes of unintentional injury death in the U.S. But there's at least one huge misconception about drowning: Many people assume that a drowning person will splash, yell, and wave for help. Wouldn't you? And isn't that what's often portrayed on movies and TV?

Actually, drowning is far from obvious. A report from The Journal of U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue has identified the "Instinctive Drowning Response." When someone is drowning, the person will instinctively display the following five characteristics:

1. Except in rare cases, drowning people are physically unable to call for help. That's because we're designed to breathe first and speak later.
2. Drowning people can't stay above the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call for help.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. They are forced to extend their arms laterally and press down on the waters' surface.
4. Drowning people cannot voluntarily move toward a rescuer or reach out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water for 20 to 60 seconds before sinking.

The Coast Guard emphasizes that the Instinctive Drowning Response is triggered by a host of autonomic nervous system responses. In other words, it is completely involuntary, unlearned, and unavoidable.

How we manage our alarm bells:

1.      We hide them

2.      We get used to them

3.      We defend them

Video

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

Henry David Thoreau

Four Things Fear Does to You:

1.     Fear UNDERMINES Your Faith

2.     Fear DRAINS Your Power

3.     Fear WALLS You In

4.     Fear DISTORTS Your Thinking

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.  I John 4:18 (NKJV)

Many kinds of fear.

Fear of Failure

Fear of People

Fear of the Unknown

Fear of Injury

Handling Your Fears

1.     Fear cannot be CURED, but it can be DEFEATED.

PETER

Peter had a problem with fear. 

Had enough faith to get himself into trouble but not enough faith to overcome his fears.

Example:         walking on water

                        Denied the Lord 3 times

                        Later in life still feared those who were of the circumcision

And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.  Matthew 14:26 (NKJV)

So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”  Matthew 14:29 (NKJV)

⁶⁹ Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came to him, saying, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.”  ⁷⁰ But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you are saying.”  ⁷¹ And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.”  ⁷² But again he denied with an oath, “I do not know the Man!”  ⁷³ And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.”  ⁷⁴ Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!”  Immediately a rooster crowed. ⁷⁵ And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.  Matthew 26:69-75 (NKJV)

2.     FAITH replaces fear, but not without a FIGHT.

JEHOSHAPHAT

And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.  II Chronicles 20:3 (NKJV)

O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”  II Chronicles 20:12 (NKJV)

And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.  II Chronicles 20:15 (NKJV)

Martin Neimoller.  First met Adolph Hitler in 1933.  Stood at the back of a room and listened.  Later told his wife:  “I discovered that Herr Hitler is a terribly frightened man.”  Fear PRODUCES tyranny.

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.   II Timothy 6:12 (ESV)

Life of Pi.  (Expressed reason for the novel: to show that God exists)  On a 26-foot lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.  Trying to transport an entire zoo across the Pacific Ocean when the ship sinks and Pi and the tiger end up in a lifeboat together. 

“I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.”  Yann Martel in Life of Pi.

3.     You can’t REPLACE your fears until you FACE your fears.

Worship is your greatest weapon in the war against fear.

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  ² When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.  ³ Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.  ⁴ One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord ...  Psalm 27:1-4 (ESV)

4.     You must EVICT your fears.

⁶ Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  II Timothy 1:6-7 (NKJV)