God’s Promises > My Fears

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It was the most passionate prayer he had ever prayed.  Craig, a first-year seminary student, stood on the doorstep of a stranger’s home.  His evangelism professor stood nearby, ready to grade Craig on how well he shared the message of Christ.  In the classroom, the professor had taught his students two keys to evangelism:  First, be prepared to share the message.  Second, be sure to pray.  And pray is exactly what Craig did.  As he approached the door, he mustered all the faith in his heart and prayed, “Dear God, please don’t let anyone be home.”

Have you ever felt like that?  Terrified to talk about Jesus?  Last week, we learned the good news of God’s love for the entire world.  And I asked you to share that, to have just one conversation about Jesus.  Did you?  On Monday afternoon, I pulled into my driveway and saw my neighbor getting his mail.  We’re friends and I really wanted to talk to him about Jesus.  I even prayed about him on Sunday, but that didn’t mean I was excited to see him on Monday.  My gut reaction was, “Oh, no.  There he is.  Now I don’t have any excuse.”  If you talked about Jesus this week, I bet you felt like that.  If you didn’t have the conversation, I bet that’s why you didn’t.  You were afraid.

If there’s one thing that gets in the way of talking about Jesus, it’s fear.  What are we afraid of?  I asked people that question.  One young woman, who spent 17 years in Lutheran schools admitted, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer their questions.”  Another confessed, “What if they think differently about me?”  Some asked, “What if the person is offended?”  Others wondered, “Will I be crossing lines at work?”  Or “Do I know this person well enough?  Will I seem pushy if I bring this up?” 

If we think of sharing our faith like a road, these fears are like roadblocks.  They stop us from getting there, to a place where we can share the message.  But here’s the worst part:  Most of the fears don’t go away.  I have a bachelor’s in theology and a master’s in divinity, but I am still afraid.  I have learned 17 different ways to present the message of Christ, but I am still afraid.  My wife is a godly woman with three decades of Christian education, but she is still afraid.  You have been neighbors with her for 7 years and you chat every week, but you’re still afraid.  The roadblocks are still there.  The problem with our fears is that they don’t simply disappear.  That means if we’re waiting for evangelism to be fear-less, we might be waiting until it’s too late.  Essentially, we don’t need more time.  We probably don’t need more information.  We just need the guts to talk about God.  We need to get past our fears.

If there’s a man from the Bible who could relate to our fears, it’s Moses.  Moses was an Israelite who lived around 1500 B.C.  He was the man God chose to lead his people, the Israelites, out of their slavery in Egypt.  God spoke to Moses and told him the plan:  Moses would speak to the Israelites and to Pharaoh himself.  Moses would declare God’s rescue mission—the end of their slavery and their future in a new place, the Promised Land. 

The message was simple.  But Moses…well, Moses was afraid.  “Who am I that I should go?” Moses questioned.  “It’s okay,” God soothed, “I will be with you.”  “But,” Moses contended, “what if the people ask me, ‘Who sent you?’?”  “Then,” God replied, “tell them Jehovah (God) sent you.”  “But,” Moses fired back, “what if they don’t listen to me?”  “Then,” God instructed, “I will allow you to do miracles to prove I sent you.”  Are you seeing a pattern?  Moses pleads.  God promises.  Moses excuses.  God enables.  Moses set up roadblocks.  God removes them.

Then Moses speaks in our text for today:  “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant.  I am slow of speech and tongue.”  “I’m not a man of words.  I get tongue tied.”  Moses is afraid. 

So God promises, “Who gave man his mouth?  Who makes him deaf or mute?  Who gives him sight or makes him blind?  Is it not I, the LORD?  Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”  God pulls the old “I gave you that mouth” card.  And he promises to help him speak; he literally says, “I will be with your mouth.”  Since God is in the picture, Moses doesn’t have to be afraid.

But he is.  Verse 13—“But Moses said, ‘O Lord, please send someone else to do it.’”  Ah, now we see the real problem.  Moses is afraid not because God can’t help him do it, not because it won’t work out, but because he simply doesn’t want to.  All those roadblocks Moses set up were the way he hid the real problem. 

If God tried to calm our evangelism fears, what would that conversation sound like?  If he said to you, “Preach the good news to all creation,” what would you say?  “But, God, I’ve never done that before.”  And he would say, “Don’t be afraid.  I promise to be with you always.”  “But, God, I’ve never been an articulate person.”  And he would say, “Don’t be afraid.  I gave you your mouth.  I will help you speak.”  “But, God, what if I get in trouble?”  And he would say, “Don’t be afraid of those who can hurt you or fire you or unfriend you on Facebook.”  “But, God, would if they think I’m weird?  What if I look dumb?  What if I can’t answer their questions?  What if they think differently of me?”

And God would say, “Ah, now we see the real problem.  You think this is about you.  You’re worried about what they’ll think of you.  I’m worried about what they believe about me.”  Verse 14 says, “Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses.”  Can you see why?  He cared more about his personal comfort than he cared about ending the slavery of his people.  Can you now see why God’s anger burns against us?  Most of us don’t talk about Jesus because we’re afraid of what people will think of us.  And our pride produces excuses, these roadblocks.  But from God’s perspective, they are wretched.  In essence, I have chosen to let people be eternally uncomfortable in hell rather than me be momentarily uncomfortable here on earth. 

God’s anger should have consumed Moses.  And it should consume us.  But look what God does next:  “He said, ‘What about your brother, Aaron the Levite?  I know he can speak well.  He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you.  You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.  He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.”  Instead of striking selfish Moses down, God shows mercy.  He calls Aaron, Moses’ brother, to help.  Moses will still speak; God will just give him extraordinary help to do it.

God shows us mercy, too.  Although he should curse us for our pride, he instead cures us with his peace.  Instead of sending our just punishment, he just sends his Son.  Jesus came to earth and spoke about forgiveness.  Despite the threats, Jesus spoke of a new exodus.  A new release from the slavery of our sin.  Jesus spoke of a better Promised Land for the people of God, heaven itself.  Jesus boldly spoke to us and about us when he said, “Whoever believes in God’s Son is not condemned…Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life...If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”  His family criticized him.  His enemies plotted against him.  But Jesus kept speaking.  Why?  Because you mattered more than his comfort.  Your salvation was more important than his reputation, more important than his very life.  Although it cost him everything, Jesus spoke the truth so that we could be loved by God.

Like Moses, God has forgiven us.  And like Moses, God has given us a helper.  Moses had Aaron.  Jesus said, “Do not worry about…what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you.”  God the Father has given us the Holy Spirit to help us speak.  The Holy Spirit has the power to change hearts and minds and opinions and beliefs.  We don’t have to be afraid because our roadblocks are nothing for the Holy Spirit.  He will use the Word of God, which is powerful and active and never comes back empty.  We don’t have to make excuses when God makes promises!

                So, with that big picture in mind, let’s talk about three of our biggest fears.  Probably the #1 fear we have is--

What if it goes wrong?  What if I talk about Jesus and she is offended or he stops talking to me or they think I’m a Bible-thumper?  Well, that certainly does happen on occasion, but I would suggest things are much worse in our minds than they are in reality.  There’s a young woman whom I kept seeing around our school for the past year.  I knew her name, but hadn’t really talked with her about Jesus.  For over a year, I waited and waited, worried that if I just jumped in and invited her to church, she would feel pressured.  Finally, last week, I said, “I’m just going to do it.”  So I ran into her after school, swallowed my fear, and said, “Hey, how’s it going?  I was actually thinking about you today.  I know your son is starting preschool again and I wanted to let you know that we have this class for parents to let them know what we’re teaching their kids here at Eastside.”  But before I could officially invite her, she interrupted me.  “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that.  I’d like to join the church and get my daughter baptized and my parents would like to join, too.”  Oh.  Well…I’m glad I waited 13 months to have that conversation!  Sometimes our imagined reaction is far from reality.  When I met the neighbor at the mailbox on Monday, do you know what happened?  He told me about his faith.  He’s going to come to church.  We talked about Jesus.  It was fine.  It was cool.  It was evangelism.  In his book The Unchurched Next Door, Dr. Thom Rainer surveyed over 15,000 unchurched people and 82% of them said they would be likely or very likely to attend a church is someone simply invited them.  If you talk to 10 friends about our Friendship Weekend on October 2^nd, 2 of them might change the subject, but 8 of them would consider coming to hear about Jesus!  We shouldn’t be so afraid of the reaction.

                Fear #2—What if they ask a tough question?  What if you bring up Jesus and they ask that controversial, touchy, I-was-hoping-they-wouldn’t-ask-that question?  Answer:  That’s exactly what you want them to do!  Here’s why—If someone asks a question I can’t answer, I have a reason to talk about Jesus again!  I can say, “You know, that’s a good question and, to be honest, I’m not really sure of the answer.  But I’d love to think about that.  Would it be cool if I did some research and we talked about it next week?”  Questions are not curses, they are conversation-continuers.

                Fear #3—How do I start the conversation about Jesus?  The best answer is to memorize Exodus 4:12—God promises, “I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”  God will give you the words.  Don’t be too afraid of thinking you need some special formula.  You don’t.  However, there are some lines that might help you cross into spiritual issues.  Mostly questions that allow you to learn what your friends believe.  You could say, “Actually, I have church on Sunday, so I can’t go.  Do you do the church thing?  Are you a Christian?”  Or you could try, “Hey, I love the cross tattoo.  Is that your only one?  What does the cross stand for?”  Or, “I’m really sorry you’re going through all that.  Is it okay if I pray for you this week?  You know, I’ve never asked you, do you believe in God?”  Or one of my favorites, “You don’t have to answer if this if you don’t want to, but I’ve been asking a bunch of people, ‘What do you think about ___________?’”  You can start however you want, but please remember God will help you speak.

Let me close with this question:  Why are you here today?  Or why did your parents bring you to church growing up?  Why did theirs?  Because at one time, a Christian’s love was greater than his fear.  And he spoke.  His fear of you or your parents or your great-grandparents without Jesus was greater than his fear of their reaction to Jesus.  Now think of what God is calling us to do.  60 years from now a young man will be praying to Jesus.  Why?  Because that’s what his parents taught him to do.  Why?  Because that’s what their parents taught them to do.  Why?  Well, because one day a fisherman overcame his fear and asked, “What do you think about Jesus?”  Amen.