“Face Your Fears”

from the book “In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day,” by Mark Batterson

Sunday, January 20, 2008; 1 Peter 3:13-15

"Chase the Lion" Sermon Series

Introduction: In the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man meet the Lion. At first they are afraid of him, but then the tables turn.

Run the video clip…. In the end, they find out that the lion is a coward; afraid of everything, including himself! He is in need of courage.

I. The Fear of Being Foolish- (1 Corinthians 1:27)

a. Looking foolish- At first, the lion looked foolish when he revealed

his fear; pretending to be what he was not (strong and mean). But once he was HONEST, Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow accepted him for who he was.

EX. Have you ever had an experience where you were made to look the fool? I remember for me it was a time when I was in high school, at band camp. The camp did a slave auction to raise money, and I decided to be sold as a slave. I was pleased that the bidding went along pretty well, but ultimately, my girlfriend at the time decided to buy me (for about $40), because she didn’t want anyone else to have me do mean things. She was going to be nice to me, and not have me do anything, but then her friends reminded her that she paid a lot of money to have me as a slave, and to take advantage of the situation. She started having me do some silly things, which caused me to feel rather foolish!

And yet, to live the life God has for us, we need to have moments of foolishness. If we are going to defy the odds, we have to face our fears, and reframe our problems, take a risk, and seize those God-ordained opportunities. In doing this, however, we will look foolish to the world. But I believe that deep down inside all of us, there is a longing to do something crazy for God.

The concern to look foolish causes people to not do many things. In a poll, it was found that people’s number 1 fear is speaking in public. Their number 2 fear is death. A third fear people have is raising their hand, because they are afraid that there answer will be seen as foolishness; causing them to look foolish. Fear of foolishness also causes people to fear rejection, as well as changing jobs. AND EVEN MORE, the fear of foolishness keeps people from praying for a miracle (What if God doesn’t answer my prayer, I will look foolish for praying for it).

But think about this: Noah looked foolish for building an ark, claiming that there was going to be a flood (this was before it had ever rained); Abraham’s wife Sarah looked foolish by talking about becoming pregnant at age 90; David looked foolish going out to battle Goliath with no armor, and his only weapon being a slingshot; Benaiah looked foolish chasing a lion; Peter looked foolish stepping out onto water to walk to Jesus; and Jesus looked foolish hanging half-naked on a cross!

But the results were astounding: Noah and his family were saved from the flood; Sarah did get pregnant and gave birth to Isaac; David defeated Goliath; Benaiah killed the lion; Peter walked on water; and Jesus rose from the dead!

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 1:27- “God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.”

b. Letting the fool out- Divergent Thinking is thinking that is outside

of the box; thinking that is creative and original. A study was done in regards to people and divergent thinking, and it was found out that 98% of children between the ages of 3 to 5 score in the genius category for divergent thinking. That percentage goes down to 12% for 8-10 year olds, 10 percent for teenagers, and 2% for those over the age of twenty-five. This is because the older we get, the more we try to conform our thinking to others, so that we don’t stand out and look foolish.

In his book “Get Weird,” John Putzier says: “the solution to this intellectual conformity and creative atrophy is tapping into your natural weirdness.” Now you may not want to think that you have a natural weirdness, but you do. Just think about when you are with someone you are most comfortable with, and how you have times of just acting weird. I know I do it a lot around my kids.

The Bible is full of divergent thinking (or we might call it Divergent Spirituality). Think about it. God tells Ezekiel to cook meat over dung for 390 days. He uses a dumb donkey to speak a message of change to Balaam. He tells Hosea to marry a prostitute. He causes His people to speak different languages at Pentecost.

WHY IS THIS? BECAUSE GOD LOVES VARIETY!!

We are called to conform to Christ, not to this world. And Christ is very different than our world. So by conforming to Christ we become non-conformists. We are called to be diverse. Diversity is really a celebration of originality stemming from God.

There is a man named Gordon MacKenzie, who worked at Hallmark. He eventually convinced the company to create a special title for him: “Creative Paradox.” One of his jobs was to do creativity workshops at elementary schools. When he would start his workshop, he would ask the children this question: “How many artists are there in this room?” The answer would differ from grade to grade.

First Grade- The entire class raised their hands; Second Grade- about half;

Third Grade- about one third. By the time he got to sixth grade only one or two kids would raise their hands. As MacKenzie says: “From the cradle to the grave, the pressure is on: Be Normal. My guess is that there was a time—perhaps when you were very young—when you had at least a fleeting notion of your own genius and were just waiting for some authority figure to come along and validate it for you. But none ever came.”

Jesus came to free the fool. Jesus wants us to let the fool out. The word “zany” in the dictionary says: “fantastically or absurdly ludicrous.” The truth is, our version of Christlikeness is way too civilized. Jesus was zany. He touched lepers; healed on the Sabbath; defended adulterers; befriended prostitutes; washed his disciples’ feet; talked with Samaritans, who were foreigners/ Jews weren’t supposed to talk to; partied with tax collectors/ who were despised in Jesus’ time; and regularly offended the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders, and very powerful.

II. The Foolishness of God- (Matthew 18:3-4; John 2:15-17; 1 Peter 3:13-15)

a. Be like a child- So how do we tap into our natural weirdness? The

Answer,is that we have to become like a child. Remember how 98 percent of 3-5 year-olds scored in the genius category of divergent thinking? I remember for me, when I was a youth minister for many years, being around fourth graders through high schoolers helped to keep me thinking young. And now with young children, this helps as well. As Jesus said in Matthew 18:3- “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Now in our world-view thinking, this can be a challenge, to understand how to grow up spiritually, we need to be more and more like a childo understand this, I think we need to understand a couple of things: first, children live in a world of limitless possibilities; second, children aren’t afraid to try anything.

1. Limitless possibilities- In children, there is a humbleness. They don’t

have pride or prejudice. They don’t have inhibitions or hidden agendas. As Jesus said in Matthew 18:4- “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Before the fall, there was no inhibitions, in the Garden of Eden either. Adam and Eve walked around naked without any thought of it. I would imagine they were carefree and even a little silly. But after sin, they were ashamed, and self-conscious, and probably more serious.

Part of spiritual maturity should be caring less and less what people think about you, or what you want to accomplish. Your only concern should be what God thinks of you. You see, part of taking God more seriously, is taking yourself less seriously. You should be less self-conscious. There is an old proverb, which says: “Those who hear not the music think the dancer is mad.”

If we are like children, then we too will be humble, and imagine unlimited possibilities. We will not try to box God in, or limit God, because we understand that God cannot be limited. We will not fear failure, if we believe God to be behind it.

2. Being uncivilized- EX. “The Rocky Movies.” If you have ever seen the

“Rocky” movies, you know that they are about a no-name boxer (played by Sylvester Stallone) named Rocky, who gets a chance at the heavy weight boxing title. By some weird twist of fate, he comes out winning the title. At first this seems great, but then in time he gets soft, and stops working hard, and he loses his fire. At one point, his manager, named Mickey, says to him: “The worst thing happened (to you) that could happen to any fighter—you got civilized.”

I wonder if that is happening to you, and to me? Would Jesus say that we are too civilized? Children are uncivilized until we teach them how to be civilized. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say that we should teach our children to be uncivilized, but there is something about becoming civilized that makes us conform. And in conforming, we lose our ability to be like Christ.

b. Passion- There is a great scene in the gospel of John 2:15-17,

where Jesus comes into the temple courtyard, and sees the moneychangers taking advantage of people in the name of God, and for the supposed purpose of worship. Let me read it to you: “So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!’ ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”

In this passage, we see Jesus showing great zeal. Children are full of zeal. In fact, I often comment to you about the zeal of the children as they run off to Children’s Church. Children have a great passion for life. But as time goes by, we lose this passion….. Much of what causes us to lose our passion is the many fears we face in
our lives. We are afraid to do so many things. But we don’t realize that we are dealing with these fears. These fears keep us from being passionate.

Those who believe in and follow Jesus Christ ought to be the most passionate people on the planet. To be like Jesus is to be consumed with passion. The word enthusiasm comes from 2 Greek words: en, and theos. Together they mean “in God.” The more we get into God, the more passionate we become.

In actuality, the antidote to fear is not courage, but hope. If we have courage, then we might believe that we do things on our own abilities. If we have hope, we believe that God can and will do things in and through us. We don’t fear, because we know that God is with us, and for us… As our scripture reading for the morning said: “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. ‘Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.’¹⁵But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

Conclusion: Lion chasers aren’t afraid to look foolish; especially if it means being foolish for God. Lion chasers aren’t afraid to be passionate; especially if this passion comes from God, and helps people to see God through us. Lion chasers are not afraid to speak about God and for God. Being willing to face your fears means that you will have to step out with passion and risk looking foolish. Being willing to face your fears means that you seek to live life to the fullest, even if others around you think that you are being foolish. As the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:31- “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Stand up to your fears by doing what God calls you to do, and by living the life God has given you to live. Let us make the commitment to live in hope, and face our fears this day, and every day. Amen.