February 13, 2005 Sermon Notes

Three facts about fear:

1. Fear is forbidden.
2. Fear is from the flesh.
   "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."–2 Timothy 1:7
3. Fear is opposite of faith.

1. Wind "A furious squall came up …" –Mark 4:37
2. Waves "… the waves broke over the boat … "–Mark 4:37
3. Water in the boat "… it was nearly swamped." –Mark 4:37
4. Jesus was asleep "Jesus was in the stern, sleeping …" –Mark 4:38
   Why was Jesus asleep?
   a. He was tired.
   b. He was not afraid.
   We are afraid of what we do not understand, cannot explain, and cannot control.

1. Don't you care? Mark 4:38
2. Why are you afraid? Mark 4:40
3. Where is your faith? Mark 4:40

1. Truth
   "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." –John 8:32
2. Love
   "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." –1 John 4:18
3. Faith
   "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." –Ephesians 6:16

Meditation

I can remember one of those rare afternoons when all four of us children were at the home of a couple who were friends of my parents. My parents must have had an appointment and needed someone to watch the four of us - all between two and eight years of age. Since this couple had never had children, there were limited amounts of toys or things to do. At one point, we must have taxed this poor woman's patience.

She commenced to line us up and march us into the bathroom of their old austere farmhouse. That in itself was rather scary. Once inside, she pointed to an old black exhaust drain pipe extending up from behind the facility through the ceiling, and she said if we did not behave ourselves, old St. Nick would come down the pipe and get us.

Fear struck our little hearts and minds. We had never heard Santa Claus referred to as St. Nick, so we thought St. Nick must be someone really bad. None of us used the bathroom the rest of the day, nor did we ever want to go back to that house. We did not know she was just attempting to get our attention and that there was no such St. Nick who could come down that pipe and grab us. To this day, we all laugh at the absurdity of this experience and realize how afraid we were of something totally benign.

Most of our fears are based upon false assumptions and mind games. Real fears often result from our own poorly made decisions. God's provisions are many and will help bring us through our fears. "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" [1 John 4:16b-18].

–George Skramstad, 2005