A special message on FEAR

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Hello everyone, Vince D'Acchioli here. For all of our On Target ministry followers, for all of the church members at the Road at Chapel Hills, and especially for our Tuesday Morning Men's Group All In Men, I wanted to produce a little video devotional for all of you, especially in light of what's going on right now with the epidemic. Many years ago, we had the opportunity to film a number of television programs that turned into a two-year curriculum for men, and one of those sessions dealt very specifically with fear. And I know right now, there are many of you who are dealing with fear. This brief video that I want to introduce deals with what we call the four aspects of fear.

I want you to take a look at it, and then on the other side, I want to come back and leave you with a devotional thought that I pray will help you in these challenging times. I'll be right back. The Bible uses numerous words to denote fear. Let's talk about some of those. It talks about reverence, dread, terror.

The New Bible Dictionary states that theologically, there are four main categories that can be suggested for this idea of fear. The first is what we call holy fear. This is God-given, enabling us to reverence God's authority, obey his commandments, and hate and shun all forms of evil. Scripture tells us that this kind of fear is the very beginning of wisdom. And in fact, if you look at Ecclesiastes, Solomon spends the entire book of Ecclesiastes whining about the futility of life.

But when he gets to the very end, it's really interesting what he says. Basically, paraphrasing here, now that I've said all of this, really all of life distills down into two things. And what are those two things? Obey God, or fear God, I should say first. Fear God and obey his commands.

He says, this is the whole duty of man. Wow, those are powerful words. And when the most incredible man like Solomon, a man with such incredible wisdom, says stuff like that, we should pay attention. But fear God in this context does not mean cower in a corner and be afraid of God. Rather, it means be in awe of God.

This is what it means to have holy fear. This is healthy, okay? The second kind of fear is what we call slavish fear. It's a natural consequence of sin. An adulterer, for instance, fears they'll be found out.

I know I dealt with a lot of this fear. Some of you have heard my personal story. You know that there were some years in my life where I was an adulterer and I was always afraid. It was a slave to that kind of fear of being ultimately found out. A tax evader works hard to cover their tracks so that they won't be discovered.

Or an alcoholic fears losing his job because he's an alcoholic and he'll be found out. This is what we call slavish fear. The next one is called fear of men. This can be positive in the sense of having a reverential awe in regard of men, or it can be quite negative where we have a blind dread of other people because of what they have or can do to us. I remember when I was in the business world, there was a man that I worked with.

I won't use his real name. I'll call him Bob. I really did not like this man. It was before I really knew the Lord very intimately. In fact, I would say I actually hated him, which I'm not proud of.

But I also feared him. I feared him because he was in a position of authority over me. I didn't revere him at all. I feared him. I feared what he could do to me.

I feared how he could hold me back in the organization. And it occupied my thoughts. We'll talk more about this later as we drill down into these sessions. That was not a healthy fear. But around that time, I also had a reverential awe for some men in my life.

I remember Pastor Hayford. I was a new at church on the way where he pastored for many, many years. And my wife and I began attending. And I was in awe of him. I really revered him for what God was doing in his life and how special a man he really was.

So fear of men can be positive, and it also can be negative. We got to be careful with that. And then the fourth one is fear as an object of fear. This is a particular fear that terrifies us. The Greek word is phobos, which is where, of course, we get our word phobia.

And, you know, President Roosevelt would say it this way. He says, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And sometimes that can really be what is going on in our life. The right kind of fear can be a good thing. The wrong kind of fear can devastate us.

But fear is always the underlying emotion and always the beginning point that we have to cover before we really start dealing with anger and unforgiveness and guilt and all of those kinds of things. The only kind of fear we should really have and that should dominate our life is holy fear. It's really being in awe of our heavenly father. Equipped now with a basic biblical understanding of the four different kinds of fear, let me just leave you with some thoughts to consider during this season. In John 14 27, Jesus says this, Peace I leave with you, my peace, underscore that, my peace, I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. These are Jesus commands, but they're preceded by something that we need to understand. Jesus is contrasting to different kinds of peace. There's the kind of peace that we can get under our own energy as we try to control things.

The world's peace, that's what he's talking about. The world's peace, listen, is power, manipulation and control. Even though I may not be able to control something, I still have an anxiety that wells up inside of me that sometimes frightens me. And that's the natural inclination of man to go to those kinds of mechanisms to try to bring about peace. And sometimes you will bring some peace about, albeit temporary.

But what Jesus is really talking about and pointing us toward is his peace. And listen to me, listen very carefully. The peace that Jesus is talking about is counterintuitive. Why? Because if you truly want to experience the peace of Jesus, it only can happen when you and I recognize how little we bring to the table.

Is that a foreign concept? You bet it is. Because we always try to strive to get ourselves into that safer place. Pascal said all men seek peace, even those who hang themselves. And what is peace?

Peace is really what we're looking for. Peace is what Jesus is talking about, but only made available. As we understand that it's his peace we need to pursue. So that first fear, reverential fear, listen everybody, that's what we need to tap into. And it's not going to happen unless we turn our minds toward Jesus.

Get them away from the television, away from all of the news. Do you need to be informed? Yes. And you need to be thoughtful about the way you're living your life right now, of course. But your real source of peace is not going to come from those kinds of things.

It's going to come from an understanding of what Jesus is calling us to do, and that is to seek him. In the midst of your struggle, seek Jesus. Spend time every single day in prayer, reading the word, praying, praising God. My wife had been doing that with much more intensity these days, and I've got to tell you, we are amazed at the kind of peace we feel when we're able to do that. Only Jesus can do that for us.

Because why? Perfect love is what casts out fear. You and I are called to experience that perfect love, and the only way we're going to be able to do that is by spending time with God. So let me encourage you right now during this season, spend time with God. Get close to him.

Let him be your source of peace. Let me pray for you. Lord, thank you so much for these precious ones, for all of our Facebook followers, for all of our people at our church, especially for our men at AIM every morning. I thank you, Lord, for them, and I pray that you would visit each and every one of them supernaturally, that for the men in the audience, that they will have the courage to step up and be the spiritual head of their family and be able to bring peace and comfort to those that are around them. I pray that you would relieve all anxiety, all fear driven by the world, Lord, and that you would give them your supernatural peace.

And Lord, as they pursue you, may they experience a sense of your presence that they have never experienced before. And Lord, we thank you in advance for what you're about to do. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.