FROM FEAR OF MAN

Many of us have the feeling that we're marking time…. Waiting for the moment when God will unveil the real work for which he calls us to be born on earth. We know that there's got to be more to it than what we're doing now and we're waiting for guidance. We're waiting for God to give us a signal to begin this special work whatever it turns out to be. And some of us are a little peeved at God because this guidance apparently hasn't come yet.

How long do I have to wait until the Lord makes these things clear? Why doesn't he come and show me exactly the steps I'm supposed to take? Is it too much to expect that the Lord who made Peter a Fisher man, and Paul an apostle to the gentiles, and promised to send the Holy Spirit to be our counselor should make me to know clearly where I fit?

But one of the guidance we think we're waiting for has already come? What if the specific revelations that we need to get us out of this limbo and show us where we fit, and make us alive and strong and steadfast and useful in the Kingdom, have somehow got past us like an important letter that was overlooked and got stacked in a corner down in the basement with the old sears catalogs?

If we think of our life as a house it's as if we're waiting for that special knock to come on the front door. And we seem to think that when we opened the door there will stand a shining Angel who will hand us an envelope and say, these are your orders. Please be careful when you open the envelope because everything you need to carry out your orders is inside.

We've been waiting a long time and it hasn't happened. And while we're waiting for our orders to be delivered at the front door there is a room, or a closet, or a dusty old corner of the basement where there is a stack of decisions that should have been made, wrongs it should have been right, words that should have been spoken, letters that should have been written, things that should have been straightened out with our relatives. In those dusty old things that have been shoved aside and left undone are our orders from the living god. Have we done these things all kinds of doors would have opened all kinds of light would have come to bring us out of our stagnation.

The day we quit dreaming by the front door and get down into this dusty junk room and start tackling those undone things, these decisions that need to be made and carried out, will be the day our real service to God will begin. If we look at these undone things closely, we'll find out that in almost every case the reason we shoved that decision aside was because we were afraid.

The things we weren't afraid to do, we did but the things we were afraid of we pushed aside and covered them up with excuses.

I'm too busy right now I have more important things to worry about.

We shall these things aside not because we are too busy or even because we are lazy, but because we knew that if we did them we might have to face unpleasantness there might be a disruption in our routine. Better let the sleeping dog lie. So now we have a whole room full of sleeping dogs. It never dawns on us at these sleeping dogs that we keep locked up, that we tiptoe past 100 times a day are causing our whole life to be dominated by fear of man.

We're afraid that if we go to the relatives and ask for forgiveness we'll be stirring up a Hornet 's nest... dot battered leave it alone. We're afraid that if we talk with these neighbors seriously about the Kingdom of God our relationship will never be the same again. We know that God has been dealing with us about the lack of discipline and the way we handle money but we're afraid to take the step. There's a man we know we have to talk to about who Jesus is, but we're afraid.

Were far far more hemmed in by the fear of Matt man than we wanted admit. In the place where the fear of man shows up is not at the front door where we put our self assured smile whenever someone approaches, but down in this dusty room where he have piled up a lifetime of evasions and procrastination. And we go on doing our church work, getting out on the streets, going to meetings, visiting the shootings, knowing that we lack power, knowing that we're just not getting the job done. And we keep praying to God for more of his spirit. And God wants to give us more of his spirit... that God wants to anoint us with power from on high. But the Holy Spirit cannot fully anoint our visits with the sick, our street work, or our fellowship with each other until we let him into the junk room. Here in this junk room, here among these undone things, is where our ministry will come to life if we can somehow overcome the fear that causes us to put these things aside in the first place.

These things I have spoken to you while I'm still with you. But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, And bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave you, my peace i give you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, I go away and I will come to you. If you love me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the father, for the father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place so that when it does take place, you may believe. I will no longer talk talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, but I do as a father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the father. Rise, let us go hence.

This passage begins with a promise that the Holy Spirit will be our counselor and ends with the warning that the Prince of this world will be busy trying to interfere. And in the center of this passage is a command: let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid. Don't let fear cause you to evade decisions and pile them up in that closet... dot because, if you do, your faith will dry up and so will your ministry.

So what do we do when we find ourselves in this predicament? What do you do when you have a whole pile of undone things that fear caused you to put aside?

1. Admit the truth.

Stop trying to deceive yourself and God. These things are gathering dust in your heart simply because you've been scared to touch them.

But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The Holy Spirit will help us remember the things Jesus has already talked to us about what we forgot. And when the Holy Spirit begins to teach and remind us of Jesus words, it's like turning on a light. Suddenly we begin to see our excuses and reasons and pretenses for what they are. Now we have to admit this before God.

Lord I haven't done these things I should have done because I've been afraid. And I'm still afraid... dot help me!

2. Open the door of this room of your life to Jesus Christ.

It's a closet of confusion and unbelief that you've kept sealed off from the rest of your life but now you open the door to Jesus.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

How can I say that I've had Christ peace all these years, in this place in my heart, where I insisted on holding a grudge? How could there be peace, in this place in my heart, where i refuse to go and ask forgiveness? Where i've been a mizer?

In these pockets of my life I've had no peace. But the minute I expose them with an act of will to Jesus Christ his peace enters. If Jesus could look up his hand and command the storm on Galilee deceased, don't you think he can quiet the storm that rages in your heart over your mother-in-law?... dot over your lost?... dot over something the boss did to you seven years ago? If we are willing, right now, to open the door of that closet to christ peace and submit to that peace it will come in and we'll know that it came.

3. Pick up these undone things, one-at-a-time, and in the name of Jesus do them.

Maybe you still feel scared but if you divide the fear... You act. You start taking the steps you know God wants you to take.

Let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid.

Don't let your heart give into confusion... don't let it be ruled by that fear. Get up and start doing the thing Jesus has made clear to you.

Even though I'm scared I sit down and write that letter, I pick up the phone and make that call, I go over and see that man and straighten this mess out. The first opportunity my friend gives me I share the treasure of the Kingdom which should have been shared with him long ago. And as I do these things the fear dries up. Next slide God has work for us far greater than what we're not doing. But it's not a matter of waiting for some revival to break out or some Angel to come knocking at the door. It's a matter of dealing honestly with the fear of man that has hindered us from carrying out certain orders from God that came to us long ago. Jesus will give us all the help we need if we'll go down to that dusty old closet of undone things, unlock the door, and make a start.