Growing Through Your Fears Matthew 14:26-33 I’ve come to believe that procrastination and fear are married emotions. A lot of fear is actually hidden. You can hide fear in procrastination. It may look something like this: “I don’t really want to talk to this person, confront this person, so I’ll put it off. If I don’t talk to then about it maybe they’ll forget or the problem will just sort of disappear.” So we put it off to deal with later...maybe. If you’re like me, procrastination leads to fear. You procrastinate for a long time and then all of a sudden when something is due you kind of get fearful that you’re going to get in trouble. Remember junior high or high school the day the science project was due? “Oh, no! It’s due today! I’ve had nine months to work on it and I did nothing.” Some of you know what I’m talking about, right? Procrastination and fear grips everybody to some degree or another. Everyone has fears. One author wrote this about fear: “All of us are born with this set of instinctive fears. The fear of falling. The fear of the dark. The fear of lobsters. The fear of falling on lobsters in the dark. And the fear of the words: Some Assembly Required.” We’re all afraid of something... of failure, of loss, of rejection, of the future. We all have them. We’re afraid of public speaking (#1 fear of most people). Or we’re afraid of what people will say about us. We all have fears. You have fears. I have fears. You know what? God is not surprised by our fears. The #1 instruction from God to humanity is: “Fear not!” If you scour the Bible, that is the number one message 366 times it says it in the Bible: “Fear not!” One for every day + leap year! Isn’t that great? I would have thought it would have been something like: “Love one another.” But instead, it’s “Fear not!” God was very thoughtful there, wasn’t He? He wants us to get it. God wants His people to not live in fear. I love the challenge God gives to Joshua in Joshua 1:9 (NLT): “I command you be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” It’s easy for us to read or hear “Do not be afraid or discouraged” but it’s tough to live out, isn’t it? That’s what I want to talk about today – ...the fears that keep us from living life to its fullest. ...the fears that keep us from being fully alive. ...the fears that keep us from being the person God created us to be. If we don’t deal with some of these fears, what happens? They turn into phobias. Did you know there’s a website called “phobialist.com”? Turns out this website lists about 600 phobias. I had heard of some – acrophobia (the fear of spiders), claustrophobia (the fear of enclosed or small places). Did you know there is actually a phobia, phobia? It’s a fear of phobias! There’s actually a fear of sermons – Homilophobia! On this website this is what it said, “Please don’t ask me about curing phobias because I know nothing about them. My interest is in the names only.” My interest is very different this morning My interest is in helping those of us here today grow spiritually through our fears and because of our fears. I’ve identified a couple action steps I’ve found from a passage in the Bible that I want us to take a look at today... Matthew 14:26-33 (Turn there please) It’s really a fear passage. Jesus puts His disciples on a boat. They had just fed thousands of people with a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread. Jesus wanted to withdraw and be by Himself. He puts them on the boat. Let’s pick it up at v. 22... [Read Matthew 14:22-33] ► [Begin Power Point] How do we grow spiritually as a result of our fears? I want to talk about how you grow closer to God. How do you have a deeper relationship with the God of the universe? I believe that one way to grow closer to God is to actually “Grow Through our Fears.” But, how do we do it? How DO we grow through our fears? ►1. ADMIT YOUR FEARS (v. 26) (REPEAT) This is very basic. You have to admit your fears. I put an “s” there – it’s plural. Fears. Admitting fears is tough, isn’t it? Any other men in here who would like to give an “amen” to that? A lot of us guys our natural response is not to say, “I’m afraid!” Our natural response is to lie. “Afraid? No, she is, but I’m not. I’m ok with that.” We want to conquer our fears, but when you admit it that’s where it all begins. The disciples did this. It says in verse 26: ►26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. Before we go any further let me ask you: What are you afraid of? ►What are your fears? What are the fears that are holding you back from living life the way God intended for it to be lived? What are the fears that you have keeping you from being fully alive? What are your fears? What are your fears about what God might be doing in your life and the life of this church? What are your fears? What’s holding you back from going to deeper more intimate places in your relationship with God? What is that fear? Is it a fear about joining the church? You don’t want to belong to something. Maybe it’s a fear of getting involved in serving somewhere, getting involved in a ministry. Maybe your fear is about sharing with a friend or family member what God has done in your life. Is it a fear of rejection? Is it a fear of not being accepted? Maybe you fear that you might be fully known. What are those fears? Take some time to allow God to reveal them to you right now... Whatever they are when you admit them there is freedom in that. Did you hear me? There is freedom when you admit your fears! (TRANSITION) So...how do we grow through our fears? We begin by admitting our fears.. The second thing you do is: ►2. TAKE THE RISK (v. 29) (REPEAT) This is the classic step. Face your fears. But just like admitting you’re afraid isn’t natural, risk taking isn’t natural either. This just doesn’t come naturally to us, does it? Most of us in here didn’t have moms that when we were going away to school as a little kid say, “Have a risky day! I want you to embrace danger today, son! When you cross the street just look one way.” No! What do they say? “Be careful! It’s a dangerous world out there.” Risk taking does not come naturally. But spiritual growth involves risk. And risk goes hand in hand with fear. Look at verse 29: ►Matthew 14:29 29 And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. That was a big step. Can you imagine that? To get out of the boat and walk on water – do something you’ve never done before? That was a risky step! But what did it lead to? It led to intimacy with the Jesus! With Peter it wasn’t just any old risk. It was Jesus calling. If you do something risky just to be risky that’s called dumb! But if you do something that feels risky to you but you know that God is a part of it that’s called faith! As I look back at my life there have been times when I’ve said, “God, I’m going to be obedient and I’m going to trust You and I’m going to get out of the boat. I don’t want to and I’m scared. But I’m going to go because You’re calling me and I believe that’s what You want me to do.” And as I step back and as I look at the bumps in my spiritual journey, the times when I’ve gone to deeper, richer, more intimate places with God have been the times when I’ve had to take a risk. It doesn’t mean that the risk has always turned out the way I thought it would, though. This may disappoint some of you when I tell you this, but my spiritual journey is not a straight line towards growth. It’s not this steady walk up hill to a rose garden. It’s up and down. More of a roller coaster (and I don’t like roller coasters!) As I step back and look over the years that I’ve known Jesus and have walked with Him, the times when it’s got stagnant, when it’s got flat, when my spiritual journey has gotten stale what sent it to the next level is times of risk.