Reveal My Fears

Brandon Petras

Dangerous Prayers • Sermon • Submitted 10 months ago • Presented 10 months ago

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Transcript

Intro

The other night Katelyn and the boys and I were watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

I don’t know if you have seen it or not, but there is this scene in the movie where they find this hidden passageway in this palace they are staying in.

And they venture into this passageway and you hear all this crunching and one of the characters makes note of how it feels like the floor is moving.

The problem is that it is very dark and they can’t see anything, that is until Indy lights a match and reveals that they are walking over thousands of bugs and insects.

Well in the panic of it all they of course trip a booby trap and spikes from the ceiling start to lower down over them.

The only way to stop it is to have a lever pulled from outside the room. Fortunately the female character in the movie happens to be outside and all she has to do is reach into this dark, slimy hole in the wall that is full of large insects.

Well, as you can imagine she is terrified to do so, but with great trepidation she is able to overcome her fear and pull the lever to save our hero.

As all of this is going on I look over at Cooper and he has a blanket over his head because he is so completely creeped out by these insects that he can’t even watch it.

Clearly the idea of putting his hand in that hole was something that produced a fear response in him, so much so that he couldn’t even watch somebody else do it.

And we all have fears don’t we. Things that freak us out or cause us to respond negatively to a situation.

Maybe you are afraid of bugs, or spiders. Maybe snakes do it for you or the dark. Perhaps you are afraid to fly in a plane or going out on the open sea in a boat.

And those fears are real and they make us anxious, nervous, unsettled, and afraid.

This morning I want to talk about fear, but not necessarily these normal external fears that I just described.

Instead I want to talk about those things that keep you up at night. Those things that bounce around in your mind that despite your best efforts, you can’t seem to quiet.

Things like losing your job

Being stuck in a bad marriage

Something happening to your kids

Having your health fail

Draining your savings account just to get by.

Last week we continued in our series on dangerous prayer by looking at a prayer that David prayed. A vulnerable prayer that asked God to search his heart.

Remember, the whole purpose of this series to is address the problem that so many of us face with it comes to prayer, if we pray at all.

That is the fact that so often our prayer becomes...

dull

flat

predictable

routine

even empty

And we know that isn’t what Jesus meant when he told us to go and find a quiet place and pray to our heavenly father.

He intended for our prayer to be...

dynamic

passionate

life-giving

So each week we are looking to the scriptures to find examples of people who prayed what I am calling, dangerous prayers.

And this didn’t really originate with me. These prayers were part of a devotion I read by Craig Groeschel called Dangerous Prayers.

Power in the Text

As I said, last week we read this prayer from David and I want to stay on this prayer again this morning because there are two very important pieces to it.

The first piece we dealt with last week and it was David asking God to “search his heart”. It is in the vulnerability of this prayer that we ask God to reveal or expose anything in our heart that prevents us from being lead along the path that God has marked out for us.

Anything in our hearts and lives that as David says, “offends God”. By offend God, we mean goes against or runs in defiance of his plan for our lives.

But there is another piece to this prayer that we touched on some last week, but hope to flesh out more this morning.

Psalm 139:23-24 NLT 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

It is the second part of verse 23 that I want to highlight; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

In other words, David was asking God to reveal his fears to him. David was clearly dealing with fear, and we don’t know what those exact fears were, but its clear in the broader context of Psalm 139 that David was troubled about his safety and perhaps his future.

He wanted to share his worst fears with God, and have God reveal even the source of the fear that he didn’t even realize he had.

Either way he wanted to face those fears and give them a name. Here David is demonstrating that his trust in God was bigger than any fear David could dream up.

What scares you this morning? What produces an anxious heart in your life? Do the choices you make the priorities you establish say anything about what you fear?

Do you perhaps feel as though you fear nothing? Maybe, or maybe you aren’t will to admit it. Or maybe you have never taken the time to ask God to reveal what you fear most.

Are you willing to pray such a prayer?

Lord reveal what holds my mind hostage. Show me what I fear the most. Not only show me God, but help me face what terrifies me.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

Why is this a dangerous prayer? Because what we fear matters. Why? Because what we fear most is what we trust God with the least.

Let that thought sit there for a little bit; what I fear most is what I trust God with the least.

Think about it. If you are gripped with fear about the future of your marriage, this is an indication that you don’t completely trust God with your marriage.

If you are overwhelmed with worry about how you are going to pay your bills, this reveals that you may not be trusting God to be your provider.

If you’re paralyzed with worry about the safety of your children, could it be that your aren’t trusting God to keep them safe?

In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus in preaching his sermon on the mount is teaching on the issue of money and possessions. Specifically the issue of hoarding.

He tells his listeners not to store up treasures here on earth. He draws a comparison to treasures in this life with treasures in the next.

He says the things we store up here; money, comfort, financial security are all temporary. That we cannot take these things with us.

Instead he encourages his listen to store your treasures in heaven where things have eternal value.

He even says it like this.

Matthew 6:21 NLT 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

He draws this connection between our heart and the things that matter the most to us.

He says you can’t be enslaved to money and serve God at the same time, and we know this to be true.

We know that in order to serve God we have to be willing to give up everything to follow him, whatever that looks like in the context of the calling he places in your life.

Now why does he say all of this? Why is he trying to drive this point home? It’s because of what he says next.

Matthew 6:25 NLT 25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?

You see Jesus is connecting worry, which is nothing more than a manifestation of fear, with trusting God to provide.

In other words, stop hoarding for yourself all this stuff. Stop working for the sole purpose of getting more and more because what you are working for is temporary.

Besides, all this obsession with possessions is the fruit of a fearful heart. You do this because you don’t really trust that God can and will provide for you.

Jesus tells us that if we would just focus on the right things then all this other stuff will be taken care of.

Matthew 6:31-33 NLT 31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

Jesus in this context is speaking of provision, but this principle applies to every other anxious thought we have.

When you and I allow our fears to control our decision making then we are living like unbelievers. We are living as if God is unaware, which in essence tells him that we don’t really think he is all powerful and all knowing.

Application/Closing

But listen. This prayer is dangerous, because if you are going to ask God to reveal your fears, then you have to be prepared to deal with them when he does.

What you fear the most shows you where you need to grow with God. And that in itself is scary because it forces us to loosen the grip and the control and hand it over to another.

You want to grow in your faith, then pray this prayer. Paul understood that the only way to eliminate fear was to pray this way.

Philippians 4:6-7 NLT 6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Paul here is echoing Jesus’s words to not worry about anything. Paul here however adds that the replacement to fear and anxiety is peace.

And this peace is available to those who pray, and I mean pray dangerously. This peace won’t make sense.

When you are facing a financial crisis, a health crisis, a family crisis, the peace available to you and I in place of our fear will stupefy those around us.

They won’t understand it, they might even call you crazy or say your are in denial. But you will know something that they don’t.

You will know the love of your heavenly father is real and it is powerful and it is ever-present.

You will experience a level and depth to your worship that exceeds description. You will be able to speak these words of David and know they are true because you are living them out every day.

Psalm 34:1-4 NLT 1 I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises. 2 I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart. 3 Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness; let us exalt his name together.

4 I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.

Are you able to say that with confidence this morning? If not, then it starts with humbly coming before God and asking him to reveal your anxious heart.

To reveal those things that terrify you. To show you the areas that you fear the most because it is the areas that you trust God the least.

And when he reveals them, then do as Peter tells us.

1 Peter 5:7 NLT 7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

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