I want to talk to you today about fear. We’ve spent time in this series talking about looking beyond your protests, about those things in you God wants to hook purpose into so that you can embrace what he has for you, and last week I asked three questions: are you willing, able, and do you trust God?

But as you lean into whatever that thing is on the other side of the struggle that is right in front of you, you are going to face roadblocks, more accurately, specific attacks from the enemy that are designed to keep you from stepping into what God has for you. The biggest of these is fear.

Most people live in fear, and because of that, there are certain benefits in the Christian life that are essentially deactivated. Fear cripples faith, it subverts peace, and robs joy, it stirs anxiety, and it paralyzes purpose. These fears keep us from even dreaming about what is beyond, much less stepping into it.

With this in mind, I want to read you a story from the Bible and highlight the fears within so you can compare your life and identify if these fears are keeping you from what God has for you. I’ll be more expository today going line by line, and we’ll read a lot from Judges.

Maybe you’ve heard of the man in the book of Judges named Gideon. Gideon was called by God to be a judge of Israel and became a great leader, but he had some fears to overcome to embrace that call. Most commentaries call him a “reluctant hero” based on the fact, that while effective, he was riddled by flaws and inconsistencies, specifically, fear.

First, some background info found in the beginning of Judges 6:1-39
1 The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. So the Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. 2 The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, 4 camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. 5 These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. 6 So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help. 7 When they cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 the Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt. 9 I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. 10 I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

Ok let’s stop here for a moment. I want to give you a series of truths as we go through these passages, the first being this:

Sin is a root cause of fear.

Romans 13:1-7
1 Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. 3 For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. 4 The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong.

When you are doing something that you know is ungodly, there is a natural fear that comes over you. That fear is can cause anxiety and torment and robs you of peace, but that fear can be used by God to bring about correction. It is called conviction and only saved people feel it. if you don’t feel that, you need to make Jesus Lord before you leave today.

Sometimes our sin can make us feel as if God has abandoned us, or even that we've lost our salvation in someway, shape, or form. But if you feel that internal struggle because of sin, if you constantly feel that pressure of knowing what you did was wrong and you feel bad for it, that's actually evidence of your salvation.

If fear is something you are struggling with, the first question you need to ask yourself is this: am I living in sin?

Judges 6:11-12 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. (Afraid of physical harm from the Midianites.) 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

The angel calls him mighty hero yet this is the last thing Gideon thinks about himself. The angel is giving Gideon a glimpse into how God sees him.

13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”

Man, I’ve done this. “God, in the past you’ve done X, why aren’t doing X now?” Gideon protests, and what was driving that protest was a lie that was specifically designed to counter a second truth. The lie: God has abandoned us. Gideon knew the history and the miracles and the deliverance, yet he was convinced that God was the one who abandoned them, not the other way around. Remember, they’d embraced the very gods they were commanded to reject. So rather than taking the responsibility, Gideon, in stead, shucked blame. God did not abandon them. They abandoned God through their disobedience.

Here’s the truth: God will never abandon us.
God doesn’t move, we do. God doesn’t run, we do. God doesn’t break covenant, we do. So if there is fear in your heart that is keeping you from doing what he’s asked of you, are you going to obey God or abandon him? They embraced other gods and idolatry became abandoning.

What about you? Are there any gods you’ve embraced and idolized? When we are disobedient, we elevate a little g god over the big g God. And we do this in a variety of areas of our lives. In your faith: are you developing your relationship with God or idolizing your flesh?
- In your marriage: are you devoted to your spouse or flirting with unfaithfulness?
- In your family: are you training up godly children or worshiping them?
- In your work: are you working as if you were working for God?
- In your finances: are you tithing/stewarding the wealth God brings or idolizing money?
- In your friendships: are you embracing godly influences or adoring evil ones?
- In your inputs: are you chasing holiness and purity or bowing to the culture of entertainment? The list can go on and on.

Are you doing what God already told you to do? Hint: it’s in the Word. Any fear that God will abandon us is silenced by his promise that he won’t, and our obedience to what he’s told us to do.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?

Judges 6:17-22 17 Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. 18 Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.”

He answered, “I will stay here until you return.” More fear of abandonment…

19 Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the great tree. 20 The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told. 21 Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

Now he realizes he’s been interacting with God, specifically with Jesus. We know this for two reasons:

First, while we see “Angel of God,” we know in Scripture this is often a phrase used to describe a theophany, which is where God through the person of Jesus appears to people in the Old Testament. e.g. Hagar, Abraham, Balaam, Samson’s parents, Elijah, Joshua, etc. All of these instances, they reference “The Lord.” That’s Jesus.

Second, many of these instances reveal the terror in realizing they are face to face with God, based on Exodus 33:20, and later with Jesus in John 1:18
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the most close relationship with the Father, has made him known.
It was never the God the Father, but God the Son, they saw face to face.

I only mention all of this because there is a fear that often comes over us when we get a glimpse of who God really is. Sometimes God asks us to do something big and powerful, and that moment is so incredible that it seems like it changes, even the DNA of who we are. We see his beauty and his incredible plan for us, but that can create fear in us because, while we are gazing into the beauty of who he is, we see the ugliness of who we are.

One pastor said it like this:
“The paradox of the Christian life is this: as I am converted, I see something of my sin, it creates something of a brokenness in me, and a need of Christ, but it is not a brokenness unto despair because I see Christ, and he supplies my needs, and so sorrow turns to joy. As I walk in the Christian life and the older I get, the more I see God, yet the more sin I see in me, how broken I am, yet the more I see of Christ, the greater my joy. In the end, you’re more broken than you’ve ever been before, seeing more of your sin than ever before, yet you’re rejoicing more than you ever did before because you’re seeing more of Christ than ever before.”

Remember your worth is determined by Christ’s sacrifice, not the things you do. What you do is an indicator into what you think and believe, but God is the one who determines your value, even in spite of what you’ve done. But we do have a responsibility to exercise our faith and grow more disciplined in our flesh by constantly submitting it to the Cross. God’s grace and mercy are not excuses to keep on sinning. There is the expectation that you shift from being led by your flesh to being led by the Spirit.

Judges 6:22-24
22 “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!” 23 “It is all right,” the Lord replied. “Do not be afraid. You will not die.” 24 And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means “the Lord is peace”). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day.

Peace? Why not Fire or Presence or the Lord is near? Because your obedience plus God’s presence equals peace. If you don’t feel peace, are you obedient and are you regularly in his presence?

Judges 6:25-26
25 That night the Lord said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. 26 Then build an altar to the Lord your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down.”

So far Gideon has offered Jesus a sacrificial meal and now the second bull in his dad’s herd. Second - why second? Jesus is the second in the Godhead? Jesus is the sacrifice? But even more, aren’t they in a terrible famine? Oil, bread, meat, now a bull… Jesus is asking Gideon to sacrifice that which they believed would sustain them. Some of us need to sacrifice that thing we’re clinging to as our salvation that isn’t Jesus, that thing we think need to survive. What is it for you? Giving out of abundance is easy. Giving in lack is faith and obedience.

Judges 6:27-32
27 So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town.
28 Early the next morning, as the people of the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal had been broken down and that the Asherah pole beside it had been cut down. In their place a new altar had been built, and on it were the remains of the bull that had been sacrificed. 29 The people said to each other, “Who did this?” And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash. 30 “Bring out your son,” the men of the town demanded of Joash. “He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole.” 31 But Joash shouted to the mob that confronted him, “Why are you defending Baal? Will you argue his case? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar!” 32 From then on Gideon was called Jerub-baal, which means “Let Baal defend himself,” because he broke down Baal’s altar.

We see another fear that is an incredibly powerful one: fear of family.
There are so many people out there who are paralyzed by what the family might say. They might endure ridicule, anger, even excommunication. God might ask you to go against the way your family has always done it. There are some generational curses that God wants to destroy and don’t think for a moment those curses will just lay down and let it happen

Gideon was afraid so he did all this in the cover of night. Yet we see Gideon’s father come to his defense. Odd, right?
- Maybe Gideon the reluctant hero had Joash the reluctant man as a father.
- Maybe Gideon’s reluctance was a generational curse of doing just enough to stay out of trouble or just enough to keep the peace, just like his dad.

Maybe that’s you, too.
- Maybe you act just like your momma or daddy and I don’t mean in a good way.
- Maybe you’ve embraced the inadequacies of your family of origin because a curse is still active from the generations before you.
- Maybe that’s why you don’t rock the boat or step out in faith.

But hear the truth my friend, You belong to a new family! The family of God! We rebuke those generational curses from your family of origin and we embrace the generational blessing of the family of God!

You don’t have to keep on living in fear of what your family might say or think. We wouldn’t set up an altar to Baal or Asherah in our homes,
and we won’t worship the thoughts and feelings of our family of origin either!

I feel like some of us have been living below the radar because we don’t want our families to know what God is doing in us, what God is calling us to. Gideon lived to a “good old age” we read in Judges 8. That means that God kept him in safety, even from his family and village. Let’s trust God!

Judges 6:33-40
33 Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel. 34 Then the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with power. He blew a ram’s horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him. 35 He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their warriors, and all of them responded. 36 Then Gideon said to God, “If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, 37 prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised.” 38 And that is just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.” 40 So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew.

Man..back to deals with God. What deals have you made with him? Now I get this in part. Gideon wanted to make sure he was hearing God. But the other part of me says, “You saw Jesus face to face! He consumed your sacrifice with fire and then disappeared, yet still spoke to you.”

I want to encourage you if God’s told you to do something and you are still in the “I want to make sure” phase of the process: God is patient.

But here’s what fear says: “It’s just your own thoughts. God hasn’t really been speaking.” So how do we know if God is speaking? In my own life, I used these metrics:
- The voice was always my own voice.
- The voice never stuttered or paused to think of what to say next
- The voice would often say things I wouldn’t have thought or said
- The voice often came in dreams or through his Word
- The voice always left me in peace not turmoil
- The voice is quiet but there is an inner urge to do something
- And many times, it is just a thought that gets dropped in my brain

So here’s a truth: God is speaking to you. You don’t need fleeces, dew, and two chances. You just need to listen. That might mean you need to get closer to him. If he’s hard to hear, you’re too far away. Prayer and Bible Study. That might mean you need to silence distractions. I am comfortable in chaos but you might not be. I don’t need silence. You might. Position yourself to hear God, whatever that looks like.

And I know you don’t like this, but sometimes you just have to take a step in the direction you think God is telling you and allow him to lead you.

Gideon has been reluctant, but he has been obedient. He’s done what God has asked. He’s doubted, yet still overcome the urge to focus his attention on the struggle before him and has embraced those things beyond God had for him. But now the moment has come. God answered with the fleece. Now it was time to obey.

Judges 7:1-9
1 So Jerub-baal (that is, Gideon) and his army got up early and went as far as the spring of Harod. The armies of Midian were camped north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength. 3 Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain and go home.’” So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight.

Side note: God uses faith driven people. Not fear filled people. That is not intended to throw shade at you, but to challenge you to trust and believe.

4 But the Lord told Gideon, “There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring, and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not.” 5 When Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord told him, “Divide the men into two groups. In one group put all those who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. In the other group put all those who kneel down and drink with their mouths in the stream.” 6 Only 300 of the men drank from their hands. All the others got down on their knees and drank with their mouths in the stream. 7 The Lord told Gideon, “With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home.” 8 So Gideon collected the provisions and rams’ horns of the other warriors and sent them home. But he kept the 300 men with him.

If I am going against the army that has been terrorizing me for years, who the Bible said looked like locusts on the ground there were so many, I want more than 300 people. Why did God do this? Well, we read that God didn’t want them thinking they did it on their own. But I have another reason as a hunch as well:
Gideon did obey each time, but he was filled with doubt, fear, and reluctance. So in an effort to work fear out of his life, God chose to put Gideon in a situation where there was no other option than to trust God.

Gideon had no way to defeat the enemy with 300 men. It would most certainly require a miracle. So God allowed a situation where Gideon had no choice but to depend on God. We all need this more than we think we do.

You gotta see how this ends! Judges 7:8-15
8 The Midianite camp was in the valley just below Gideon. 9 That night the Lord said, “Get up! Go down into the Midianite camp, for I have given you victory over them! 10 But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah. 11 Listen to what the Midianites are saying, and you will be greatly encouraged. Then you will be eager to attack.”
So Gideon took Purah and went down to the edge of the enemy camp. 12 The armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts. Their camels were like grains of sand on the seashore—too many to count! 13 Gideon crept up just as a man was telling his companion about a dream. The man said, “I had this dream, and in my dream a loaf of barley bread came tumbling down into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent, turned it over, and knocked it flat!” 14 His companion answered, “Your dream can mean only one thing—God has given Gideon son of Joash, the Israelite, victory over Midian and all its allies!” 15 When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship before the Lord. Then he returned to the Israelite camp and shouted, “Get up! For the Lord has given you victory over the Midianite hordes!” 16 He divided the 300 men into three groups and gave each man a ram’s horn and a clay jar with a torch in it. 17 Then he said to them, “Keep your eyes on me. When I come to the edge of the camp, do just as I do. 18 As soon as I and those with me blow the rams’ horns, blow your horns, too, all around the entire camp, and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’” 19 It was just after midnight, after the changing of the guard, when Gideon and the 100 men with him reached the edge of the Midianite camp. Suddenly, they blew the rams’ horns and broke their clay jars. 20 Then all three groups blew their horns and broke their jars. They held the blazing torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, and they all shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 Each man stood at his position around the camp and watched as all the Midianites rushed around in a panic, shouting as they ran to escape. 22 When the 300 Israelites blew their rams’ horns, the Lord caused the warriors in the camp to fight against each other with their swords. Those who were not killed fled…

Judges 8:28
That is the story of how the people of Israel defeated Midian, which never recovered. Throughout the rest of Gideon’s lifetime—about forty years—there was peace in the land.

There is something God has for you beyond the situation you are currently facing, and satan will most certainly use fear to keep you from stepping into that beyond.

If you are filled with fear about that thing God’s asked of you, you might find yourself in a place where it seems like the only way out is a miracle. This could be the enemy, it could be from your own bad decisions. But it also could be God putting you in a place where the only thing left is to trust him.

So here’s the last truth I want to share with you today:
Live where your only option is to trust him. This isn’t a curse. it is a blessing. It is a privilege.

Why? Because when your only option is to trust him, fear and worry and doubt and self reliance and being enough and having to figure everything out on your own, and yes, even stepping into that thing God has for you becomes an easy yes rather than a reluctant maybe or a hard no. You find your life and all it contains is completely in his hands, not your own, not in anyone else’s. And even though problems persist and situations arise, we know that no matter what comes our way, what God has spoken he will see come to fruition! And that allows us to live in the splendor of his promises, where:
- His perfect love casts out fear.
- His incessant faithfulness drives away doubt.
- His gracious goodness give us hope.
- His encompassing presence gives us strength.
- His tender voice gives us unimaginable peace.

Look, you aren’t as far away as you think. You probably just need to take a moment today, and stop making deals and second guessing, stop wondering if God said and how it is all going to work, and simply embrace this moment to trust him.

God I am afraid, but I will trust you. God I am worried, but I trust you. God I don’t know if I am enough, but I trust you. God, I’ve failed before, but I trust you.

At some point Gideon stopped being afraid and just obeyed, even with boldness as Judges goes on. I am asking you today to stop being afraid to step, and simply obey.

In fact, let’s declare some things today:
- I renounce fear and refuse to live afraid. God, I embrace your power, and love, and a sound mind.
- I break every generational curse passed down in my family of origin and embrace the generational blessings that come from the Family of God.
- I confess I’ve let fear determine my obedience. That stops today. I confess I trust you and I’ll obey.

Let’s pray