Things That Cause Fear

October 14, 2018
Pastor Clint Ziemer

Audio from the sermon preached on October 14, 2018, at Cable Community Church, Sherrard, IL

Episode Notes

Things That Cause Fear



Text:  1 Kings 19:1-10


Do you remember the story of Robinson Crusoe? He gets shipwrecked and a Bible is washed up as part of the wreckage. He reads it and then comes to a relationship with the Lord on the island... a really good steady relationship with the Lord. However, one day he sees a footprint in the sand, just one footprint, and he knows that he is not alone. He returns to his camp and boards it all up, and then after he has finished the barricading he can no longer sleep because his thoughts are filled with worries about cannibalism. He goes from faith to fear overnight.


Speaking of shipwrecks… In Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 8:23ff,  we find that one day Jesus “got into [a] boat and his disciples followed him.  Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” 

 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.


Over the past several weeks we’ve been looking a factors in our lives that might contribute to suicide.  We’ve looked at anxiety, shame and depression.  Today we look at fear.  We already looked into this, a little bit, at first, when we discussed anxiety.  Remember that anxiety is a type of fear — a fear of the unknown or uncertain.  Where fear is more substantive.  Fear is worry or unease related to a known danger or threat.


This brings us to today’s text in ! Kings 19, where we see a prophet of God who was so afraid that he was wishing he could die.  He, too, went from faith to fear overnight, as it were.  Circumstances of his life have become overwhelming.  He doesn’t want to go on.  Have you ever been there?


Follow along with this account of Elijah as we see the different types of fear that he was experiencing. 

The Fear of Others  (vv. 1-3)

The Fear of Failure  (vv. 4), and

The Fear of Abandonment  (v. 10)

  1. Body
    1. The Fear of Others  (vv. 1-3)  -- … “Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done…”
      1. Elijah had a problem.
        1. Elijah had just had a good day, and a very busy day. (from chaper 18)
          1. He'd taken on the prophets of Baal.
          2. He'd climbed the mountain and built an altar of stones to God
          3. He'd watched and listened to Baal’s prophets crying out in vain
          4. He'd waited until the time was just right and then he spoke a prayer to Jehovah God
          5. Then Elijah watched as God answered with fire from heaven
          6. Elijah rallied the people and led them to overthrow the prophets of Baal and rid the land of their evil presence.
          7. Then, this mighty man of God prayed for the drought to be lifted off of the land -- a sign of God's favor returning -- and then it rained!
          8. The last verse of chapter 18 says that next Elijah grabbed up his clothing and ran about 20 miles to the capital city, Jezreel.
        2. I believe Elijah was running on ahead of the king's chariot to share the news of what happened on Mt. Carmel and to see if this mountaintop revival would continue on down into the city.
        3. I believe that, now - after the prophets of Baal were killed - Elijah was looking for a "clean sweep" throughout the land.  Would this “mountaintop revival” have any effect in the capital city?  Including  the impotent king Ahab and his idolatrous queen, Jezebel?
        4. Elijah may have believed that because of what had happened on Mount Carmel things had to change in the land. However, Ahab’s heart remained unchanged. And Jezebel?  She had stayed at home and had not seen the showdown at Mount Carmel so she would have been wondering what had happened. She would have seen the rain and probably thought that as Baal was the god of thunder, he had done this. Then Ahab came in.
        5. Now, Elijah had a problem.
        6. In the text we read We read “Now Ahab told Jezebel all . . .” The Hebrew text has the descriptive imperfect of past continuous action from the verb nagad, “to be conspicuous, apparent,” and then, “to expound, declare, make clearly known.” Undoubtedly Ahab declared in detail the events of the day, point by point. However, just as the media so often does today, he distorted the issues and failed to present the truth because his pride and unbelief had hardened him against the truth.
        7. Note the declaration of the text. “. . . all that Elijah had done, and how he had executed all the prophets . . .” How like human nature. Note again the emphasis, “all that Elijah had done.” He failed to see God in what had happened and Elijah as merely God’s instrument. Like so many today he was completely absorbed with a man and as a result misrepresented the truth of what had actually happened. 
        8. Then Ahab told her all that Elijah had done; how he had executed the prophets after the great challenge on Mount Carmel and their sacrifice to Baal in the afternoon. How they had cut themselves and blood flowed, but still nothing happened….there was only silence. But Elijah prayed one simple prayer and the fire fell. So Jezebel would have been incredibly incensed by this, especially with the prophets being slain.
        9. Now, Elijah had a problem.His problem had a name — Jezebel.
        10. v. 2  Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.”
        11. She really had it within her power to take his life there and then but she didn't actually do that. Instead, she gave him one days’ notice of her intention to take his life. 
        12. Now, I don't know about you but if you were going to take someone's life you probably wouldn't give them a day's notice so that they had the chance to escape. So what was her intent? I believe it was to instill fear into the heart of Elijah and it worked.
      2. His problem turned a good day upside down.
        1. In the span of one day, Elijah goes from the top of the mountain to, emotionally and figuratively, the depths of fear.
        2. This is how it is for us, for we are no different from Elijah. James says that Elijah was a man just like we are and he had the same strengths and weaknesses. 
        3. We are all the same. One day we can be on the mountaintop and then running for our life the next, and it can happen so quickly! Elijah was not ready for the things which he saw in Jezebels message, and this is what caused him to be so afraid. 
        4. A good example of this from the Bible is Peter. He had enough faith to actually get out of the boat and walk on the water. It is amazing that he was able to look at Christ and say “Can I come to You?” and he actually got out of the boat, put his feet on the water and walked. But what does the Bible say then happened? ‘When he saw the wind, when he saw the waves, when he saw circumstances then instantly his gaze was taken off Christ and he began to sink’. 
        5. This is what happened to Elijah. On Mount Carmel his gaze was upon God who brought the victory. But here in this instance his simple faith and trust in God seem to have gone out of the window. All he can see is a woman's threat of harm and her bad intentions.
    2. The Fear of Failure  (vv. 4)   … “I am no better than my fathers…”
      1. Verse 3 tells us that Elijah left the northern kingdom of Israel, ruled by Ahab, and travelled south, over 80 miles, to Beersheba in Judah, the very southern part of the southern kingdom. Then he took off by himself, a further day's journey into the desert. He wanted to be alone. His mind was in turmoil and he was completely demoralized. 
        1. We know this because of what it says in verse 4, “He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. 'I have had enough, Lord,' he said. 'Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers’” 
        2. Elijah felt defeated. He felt a failure. He felt there was no point carrying on.
      2. Yeah, I get that, but what does he mean, “I am no better than my fathers.” ???  
        1. Whoever said he was? Could it be that Elijah may have got himself a little bit puffed up on Mount Carmel and is possibly a little over inflated?  
        2. All the way through these chapters you read that Elijah considers himself to be the only true prophet that God has. He keeps saying that he is the only one that God has left, but in just a little bit, we find out that he wasn’t. 
        3. I think possibly Elijah sees himself as somewhat indispensable to God but as one great saint on his death bed said, “Few men are important, none are necessary.”
        4. That is very true; no-one is indispensable to God. And Elijah is saying here “Look, I am no better than my fathers.” Did he consider himself to be better?
        5. Now the prophet is afraid that he has become an absolute failure, totally  worthless, and he is no better than his fathers who had allowed the nation to fall into this condition. In other words, he was seeking his significance, his value on his life, from his success in terms of outward results.
        6. Now he had failed, really, in the things that he once considered himself to be strong in. When you look at Moses, he was the meekest man on the earth and yet he had a mouth on him, and he spoke some harsh and bitter words. Sometimes your strength is actually where you will fail. 
        7. Abraham was a man of massive faith, yet his faith failed him many times, when he was down in Egypt and in other places like that. Same with Elijah, he was a courageous man, there is none more courageous than he was to take on a whole nation and the false prophets, yet he fled from the voice of one angry woman.  And now he’s afraid that he has failed.  “Take my life, Lord.”  He prays.  And that’s a good thing - prayer.  As we see, through prayer, his fears begin to turn around.The Fear of Abandonment  (V. 10)   … “only I am left…”
      3. Finally, he comes to the final fear.  This is perhaps the worst of them all.  The fear of abandonment, that is to say —  of being all alone.
      4. Fear is an interesting thing. Here are a couple of quotes that I read about it:
        1. Fear is the little dark room where negatives are developed.
      5. That is so true for us as well as Elijah. There are lots of things that we are afraid of. Everyone is afraid of different things. There are lots and lots of little things that we shouldn't be afraid of but actually are. Fear is that little dark room where all you see is the negatives which seem unfortunately to dominate us.
      6. The other quote is:
        1. To him who is dominated by fear everything rustles.
      7. This is also true because when you are afraid, when you are cowering due to  circumstances, all of your senses are on edge, everything seems to be heightened and everything seems to be a problem. It is in our DNA to respond to fear in this way. In the first instance when Adam and Eve fell, what was their initial response? They fled from God because they were afraid. He called to them “Where are you?” and they replied “We are afraid because we are naked.” Fear is all part of being fallen and sinful. If our worries, insecurities and anxieties are allowed to dominate us they will cause us to fall.
      8. I read somewhere that 40% of fear is apparently about things that never happen. 30% of our fears are in the past so shouldn't even really be considered. 12% are actually other peoples’ business and 10% is about sickness. This leaves 8% of things that are likely to happen.
      9. This last fear of Elijah’s falls into that 92% of fears which are unlikely or unfounded.
      10. Why, because he is NOT alone.
        1. First of all — GOD is with him.
        2. Look at how God graciously provides for him.
        3. Next, God tells him to recruit others to the cause.
        4. In v. 13, God tells him to anoint future kings and to recruit Elisha as his successor. 
        5. Finally in v. 14, God reveals to Elijah that he has reserved 7,000 in Israel “whose knees have not bowed to Baal.”
  2. Conclusion
    1. Psalm 118 speak of the Lord as our helper and in v.6, it says, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
    2. In the N.T., Hebrews 13:5-6 quotes this Psalm saying, “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say:“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
    3. God did not condemn Elijah for his fears. Instead, He wanted to show him a powerful and precious truth, and he wanted to restore him once again to usefulness. God told Elijah, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” We then read how Elijah witnessed the most amazing and awe-inspiring display of God's power. There was a great and powerful wind that tore the mountain apart, shattering rocks – like a great hurricane, winds far more powerful than the winds that struck Florida this past week. Awesome power! Then came an earthquake. Earthquakes too can be terrifying things. Did you see the recent earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia?  The recovery efforts were recently ended, but not before the death toll rose to over 2,000.  Officials say that the rebuilding will take at least 2 years. God was showing His awesome power to Elijah, but the Bible says the Lord was not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire.
    4. Finally, after all this power display came a gentle whisper. Verse 13 says, “When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” God spoke to Elijah in such a way as to calm his troubled mind. It was a way of tenderly encouraging him to hand over his fears, his disappointment and his depression to God, the God who loved him and understood how he felt. God was once again reaching out to Elijah to renew in his heart a call to service. Rather than feel guilty, rather than focus on himself & his failure, God wanted Elijah to focus on His love, on the fact He understood. 
    5. Jesus does the same for us today. God still had important business for His servant. God wanted to restore him and take him back into ministry. God assured Elijah that even if he thought he had been alone, in fact there were thousands of others who had not bowed the knee to Baal. Elijah's work had not been in vain. God would take care of His servant and He still had work for him to do in the process of fulfilling His plans in the nation.
    6. Have you felt afraid of someone?  Of what they might or might not do? Have you felt the fear of failure or of being all alone? Have you ever said to God, “I've had enough, Lord!”? Maybe there are lessons for you today in the experience of Elijah. Maybe God is wanting to speak to you with His gentle whisper. Are you ready to listen? Don't wait for or look for those mighty displays of power. God may already be speaking to you quietly and gently, calling you home, calling you back to Himself, calling you back into service. Don't feel embarrassed to ask for prayer or to seek help along the way. God is there for you and so are your Christian brothers and sisters.

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