Fear Itself
From Pastor Tim’s article in the 4/27/16 Weekly Update
When you walk away from dinner at Taco Bell and an hour later begin to feel something in your stomach, you don’t really need to wonder what it is. You can call it heartburn, acid reflux or indigestion but it’s really all the same. The point is that you know where it came from and can probably keep it from happening again if you want to.
When you walk away from a sermon or Sunday School class about sharing the message of the gospel with a lost person and you experience some of the same symptoms you had after your Quesadilla, that’s really just as easy to label. You’re afraid.
We tend to experience the sensation of fear because in the setting of an evangelistic opportunity we don’t always have complete control. The person we’re talking to might respond with a sarcastic remark, anger, confusion and questions. Their opinion of me might drop dramatically as they discover that I really believe all that “Bible” stuff. I can grow fearful because I know that I’m perfectly capable of dropping the ball and calling “salvation” “sanctification” and vice versa. I might not be able to answer an innocent question and that thought just terrifies me.
Thus, my response to the knowledge that God has called me to be a part of the disciplemaking process is to slide into paralysis. I’m not against it; I just don’t feel comfortable doing it. I don’t like to fail and I don’t enjoy being laughed at so I’m going to work to avoid both those possibilities and love Jesus without obeying His command to share my faith story with anyone else.
It’s one thing to be afraid if you’re alone on a deserted island with limited food and no cell phone service. It’s another thing to be afraid when you’re in the same situation, but the U.S.S. Eisenhower aircraft carrier is parked next to your island and you have 6,000 sailors, armed to the teeth, available to help you. Fear is rational and understandable in the first instance. In the second scenario, there’s just no reason to be afraid. To be fearful with that massive force in sight is to declare a lack of faith in its potential to pull your bacon out of the fire.
As followers of Jesus we’ve been commanded to take the light of Truth into the dark places of our world: classrooms, offices, Little League dugouts, our neighbor’s backyard and the playgrounds where our children play. When fear begins its ugly work in our bellies we need to respond with awareness that Holy Spirit is present and powerful and available to help us accomplish the mission.
Instead of being afraid we can open our mouths with confidence because we understand the power of God, but also the passion of God to reach lost people. He will help, not only because He can, but because He wants to so badly. There is nothing more important to God than the message of the gospel being shared with a lost person. If you pray . . . HE WILL COME! Count on it.
God’s perfect love, as displayed on Calvary, casts out the fear we feel and replaces it with confidence; not confidence in ourselves, but confidence in Him. If we prayerfully take the step of faith to open our mouths He will give us words to say and grant us favor with some to receive our message of hope.
The tragedy of allowing fear to govern our decisions regarding evangelism is that our silence not only renders the lost person still lost, but it testifies against our God, and His massive power, that He cannot be trusted to come through in the clutch.
Just walk across the room.
