Sermon - Conquering Fear on the Road to Wholeness - The Conclusion

Conquering Fear on the Road to Wholeness – Matthew 25:14-30

Part Three

How many of us have permitted gut wrenching fear to rob us of joy and liberty in daily living!  Fear prevents a return to school to earn high school equivalency or college or graduate degree.  From day to day, we utilize shallow excuses to cloak penetrating fear.  Unfortunately, some of us settle for a severely reduced standard of living in regards to relationships because our fears coerce us to tolerate “unacceptable” situations.  We remain in unfulfilling, unrewarding and possibly disrespectful relationships.  The most extreme example is a battered spouse who stays because he or she is afraid to leave.  For such an unfortunate person, fear becomes larger than life as he or she no longer believes that life offers any better possibilities for love, communication, trust and respect.  Other people’s internal terror and anticipation of their spouse’s reaction tolerate emotional and verbal abuse.  As people settle for meager modes of living, fear turns them into zombies.  They cease to dream or pursue the life that they imagined within the innocence of their youth.  Practically, they fail to reach for anything more, higher, greater, or deeper.  I firmly believe that a person who stops dreaming has stopped living!  Each of us possesses a dream file in the deep recesses of our consciousness and hearts.  I reason that our dreams connect to our purpose for being.  Sarah Vaugh, the late jazz vocalist who hailed from Newark, New Jersey, sang, “You’ve got to have a dream.  You’ve got to have a dream.  ‘Cause if you don’t have a dream.  How you gone have a dream come true?”  Fear destroys dreams and kills our efforts to achieve them.  With contrasting encouragement, the enduring words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt empowers us to forsake fear.  In the height of the Great Depression, he exhorted the nation, “The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself!” 

It is easy to condemn the third servant whom I charitably characterize as “Mr. Trifling.”  However, we must humbly admit that we share his pain and suffering.  We can relate to his predicament.  This servant lacks self-confidence.  Unsurprisingly, he surrenders to his fears like a victim of circumstances.  Fundamentally, fear is a self-centered emotion yielding unwillingness to accept on its terms and not ours.  Risk is a necessary precursor to achievement and success.  The third servant wanted advance assurance of success before trying to earn an investment.  Whatever the origins and causes (past experiences, dysfunctional family or previous failures) of his low self-worth, they did not justify the servant’s resentment of his master’s success.  Biblical commentators concur that the words of the third servant to his master are ones of bitterness, envy, jealousy, contempt and resentment.  Some people have equal feelings towards their friends, neighbors and coworkers.  We resent them for conquering their fears and then succeeding.  We focus on other people instead of examining ourselves.  It is easier to assassinate other people’s character and denigrate them instead of undergoing slow, excruciating and painstaking self-evaluation which inevitably yields personal growth and spiritual development. 

The twenty-sixth verse suggests that fear leads to perversion, evil and wickedness.  Fear lies beneath much untoward behavior that we classically label as sin.  I define sin as “choices of patterns of behavior that work against me.”  Fear compels choices that impeded a person’s progress toward wholeness.  Fear of intimacy and its necessary vulnerability are the source of a lot of sexual promiscuity.  Fear contributes to countless and immeasurable societal problems such as alcoholism, gambling, drug abuse, debt and mental illness. 

In closing, as we travel the road of wholeness, how are we to conquer fear in our daily lives?  How are we to defeat this thief who comes to kill, steal and destroy our joy?  I would like to offer a few practical suggestions.  First, Jesus Christ came to impart abundant and eternal life to anyone who genuinely believes in Him.  Practically speaking, Christ delivers believers from fear: Deuteronomy 31:6-8; Joshua 1:9; Psalm 27:1-2, 34:4, 46:1, 46:10; Isaiah 41:10-13, 42:16, 43:1-3, 50:7, 52:12, 54:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:1, 28-39 and 2 Timothy 1:7.  Second, the Word of God calms all fears and soothes each doubt.  As you progress along your journey to wholeness and clouds of fear and doubt burst on the horizon, you can find relief and solace in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We walk by faith and not by sight,” among other scriptures.  This verse assures you that Christ walks with you; when you walk by faith in Almighty God, you are never left to walk alone.  Moreover, the Psalter enduringly says, “Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.  Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff comfort me.”  As the title of an encouraging and empowering book pertaining to cancer survival by the late Larry Burkett posits, There Is Nothing to Fear.

Prayer alleviates all forms of anxiety.  One author proposes, “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.”  As we obediently and faithfully pray without ceasing, we cultivate courageous faith to surmount any adversaries and adversities that we might face.

Build a support network of fellow disciples.  Attend services with your church family as often as possible.  When you feel alone, afraid, weak and abandoned, someone within your fellowship will have an encouraging word from the Lord.  Someone else will intercede on your behalf.  Yet another person may offer an empathic word of testimony.

Additionally, you might consider supplementary sources of help in conquering fear.  Pastoral or psychoanalytic counseling may prove helpful.  A twelve-step program or some other type of support group might meet your needs. 

Allow me a final reiteration as my last point.  The Apostle Paul exhorts the Ephesians, “Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.”  I accordingly urge you to utilize God’s word and power to conquer any fear in your life.  Personally, I rely upon Psalm Twenty-seven (27) in time of terror.  It says,

The Lord is my light and mu salvation

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life

Of whom shall I be afraid?  …

Though an army besieges me

My heart will not fear

Though war breaks out against me

Even then will I be confident …

When evil men advance against me

To devour my flesh

When my enemies and my foes attack me

They will stumble and fall …

Though my mother and my father forsake me

The Lord will receive me …

I am still confident of this

I will see the goodness of the Lord

In the land of the living …

Wait for the Lord

Be strong and take heart

And wait for the Lord

Weep not!  Wail not!  Mourn not!  Fear not!  God does not leave abandon or forsake.  He gives His power to you to enable you to conquer fear on the road to wholeness.