Sermon Tone Analysis

To Fear or Not To Fear

Text:118:1-9 

for his steadfast love endures forever!

2  Let Israel say,

“His steadfast love endures forever.”

3  Let the house of Aaron say,

“His steadfast love endures forever.”

4  Let those who fear the LORD say,

“His steadfast love endures forever.”

5  Out of my distress I called on the LORD;

the LORD answered me and set me free.

6  The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

7  The LORD is on my side as my helper;

I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.

8  It is better to take refuge in the LORD

than to trust in man.

9  It is better to take refuge in the LORD

than to trust in princes.

What are you afraid of?

What keeps you awake at night?

What would be your worse nightmare?

Call me a wimp if you like, but I hate being scared.

Every October Hollywood tries to scare us more than they did last October with new gory, violent, nightmarish movies.

Call me a wimp if you like, but I hate being scared.

Fear affects all of us, but some some more than others.

Some experience what is known as phobias.

A phobia is an irrational fear of something.

A website I visited on the subject of fear said that all fears usually fall into four different categories; fears of the natural environment, fears related to animals, fear related to medical treatments or issues, and fears related to specific situations.

It also said it is useless to try and provide a detail list of fears, for any object or situation can become a phobia.

I’ve reduced it down even further.

There’s the fear of God and then there’s the fear of everything else.

They are fears of the natural environment, fears related to animals, fear related to medical treatments or issues, and fears related to specific situations.

It also said it is useless to try and provide a detail list of fears, for any object or situation can become a phobia.

Well, regardless of how we label our fears, fear is something we can all relate to.

The Bible tells us that fear can be a blessing and a curse.

In our series on “What does the Bible say?” we want to look at what the Bible says about fear.

One particular passage gives us a good picture of fear is found in .

READ TEXT:

King David is believed to be the author of our text.

In it he instructs us to focus on the goodness and love of God, and then to give thanks for Him.

He then instructs us to say that His (God’s) steadfast love endures forever.

And in verse 4 we are told, that those who fear God should say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”

Our text tell us that on the one hand, those who know God and love Him, should also fear Him.

While on the other hand, because of our fear of God, we should not fear others as he ask the question “What can man do to us? in verse 6.

To know God is to know His love, which is steadfast.

But knowing God will also bring about knowledge of power and holiness.

Just as we should respect the power of electricity, the dangers of household poisons, and the authority of law officials, so should we respect and even fear the power of God, whenever we violate the holiness of God.

A person who has a personal relationship with God, through His Son, Jesus, is someone who has the Lord on their side.

If God is on your side, you don’t need to fear anyone in this world.

The Lord can be your refuge, a pleasant help in times of trouble.

To know God is to know His love, which is steadfast.

But knowing God will also bring about knowledge of power and holiness.

Just as we should respect the power of electricity, the dangers of household poisons, and the authority of law officials, so should we respect and even fear the power of God, whenever we violate the holiness of God.

Consequently, God’s power works two ways.

It can and should put fear in us when we are facing temptations.

But it can, does, and should provide a great degree of confidence and security when we are walking in obedience to Him and His Word.

In saying this, we need to look at what fears are harmful to us and which ones are a blessing to us.

We begin by looking at fear’s foundation.

In other words, why did God instill in us the ability and the need to experience the emotion known as fear?

It’s all about love.

Fear’s foundation is the love of God.

I. Fear’s Foundation is Love

God is the God of love.

He loved us enough to send His only-begotten Son into a world filled with sin and hurt.

Jesus loved sinners enough to die on the cross for them.

So don’t ever doubt the love of God.

His love is steadfast.

His love is unfailing.

His love is unconditional.

But so is His holiness.

He will not look the other way concerning our sin.

He will not ignore our sin, or excuse our sin.

So don’t let anyone convince you that because God is a God of love, we should never fear Him.

To remove fear from our relationship with God would show our ignorance of the Scriptures and of God.

It is His love that demands that we respect His authority and fear His wrath.

For by dong so, we can avoid a lot of sin, be protected from much hurt and many heartaches.

When it comes to the fear of God, its foundation is the love of God.

A. God Loves Us

God loves us just like a good father loves his child.

His love is so great, we can never escape it.

The apostle Paul put it this way in , “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It is because of His great love for us that He reminds us of His wrath and holiness.

The Bible says, “For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”

And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’” ().

God hates sin because He knows what it will do to us and to those near to us.

Therefore He wants us to fear sin and the One who punishes sin.

For those who think they can sin whenever it’s convenient and then seek forgiveness at the drop of a hat, will one day experience the wrath of God.

But if we fear the wrath of God today, we will most likely be protected from many sins and heartaches tomorrow.

Although you may not know it, I’m an animal lover.

My childhood days were filled with pets.

We had horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, tropical fish, turtles, birds, a pet squirrel, a pet skunk, and even a pet squirrel monkey.

Unfortunately, since we lived so close to the highway, anything that wasn’t kept in our house or in a pen would soon meet its death.

As a child

Consequently, whenever I let our house dogs out to use the bathroom, fear gripped me.

On some occasions, I caught my poodle across the highway.

When this happened, I would take my belt off, later on my rolled up newspaper, and teach him to fear the highway by teaching him to fear my wrath whenever he wandered onto the highway.

Thus, unlike our outside dogs that eventually were run over, our two poodles died of old age.