Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Matthew 14:25-32, Judges 6:36-40

“Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Matthew 14:27

The sound of a gunshot woke him out of deep sleep. It had come from somewhere inside the house. Fearing an intruder, he grabbed a wooden bat near his bed and tiptoed into the living room. By the dim light of the embers in his fireplace, he studied the room to watch for movement. Finally, confident that the intruder had left, he turned on a light. As he walked across the room, he was stunned to see tiny sparkly things reflecting all over the carpet. He bent down to pick up one of the tiny sparkly things and discovered it was a seed.

As he investigated the situation, he discovered that a pod from a centerpiece on the table had exploded shooting tiny seeds all over the room. The heat from the fire in the fireplace had triggered the pod’s ancient signal for reproduction. It had done what God intended it to do in the midst of fire, explode and spray seeds to replenish the earth following a fire. Can you imagine the flood of relief as he realized he was not in danger, but it was just the sound of a seedpod exploding?

As we approach the anniversary of last year’s firestorm that took so many of our houses, I am recalling the bang sound of our back door blowing open in those early morning hours. Just as we woke up to investigate the sound, a friend in Poway called to tell us to evacuate. Trying to figure out what was going on; we looked out our back windows just as some of our neighbor’s houses burst into flames. I recall the panicked feeling as we grabbed our grandchildren and fled through the embers blowing past us to get into the cars and get out.

There is an appropriate time for the fear reaction. Fight or flight adrenaline can save our lives in a time of crisis. Unfortunately, there is also a time when fear hurts us rather than helping us. For many children there is a faulty connection between fear and darkness. Children want a nightlight on so they will not be afraid of the dark. Shadows at nighttime can take over our imaginations and make us see ghosts and scary things. No wonder Jesus’ disciples were afraid when he came to them walking on the stormy waters. His first words were to reassure the disciples and tell them not to be afraid.

As we continue this series of Bible biographies under the theme of focused living, let’s examine the lessons of a man whose life was dominated by fear. Today’s Bible character is named Gideon. Listen to a portion of his story.

Sign of the Fleece

Then Gideon said to God, "If You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken."

And it was so. When he arose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he drained the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water.

Then Gideon said to God, "Do not let Your anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me make a test once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground."

God did so that night; for it was dry only on the fleece, and dew was on all the ground.

Judges 6:36-40

The attorney was cross-examining the cowboy up on the witness stand. “Sir, you claim to have suffered severe neck injuries, but the report of the sheriff says that when he asked you at the scene of the accident you said you were doing fine. How do you explain that?” The cowboy, twisting in his neck brace, looked over at the jury and then explained what happened. “You see, when the car came around that corner so fast and hit my horse right out from under me I was stunned for the next few minutes. By the time I was fully aware of my surroundings, I watched as the sheriff walk over to my horse. The sheriff shook his head, pulled out his pistol and shot my horse to put him out of his misery. Then, with his smoking pistol in his hand, the sheriff turned and asked me how I was doing, so I said, ‘I’m feeling fine!’”

Fear is a powerful thing. It has a valuable purpose in some circumstances. However, there is an aspect of fear that is debilitating to faith. Gideon is an example of a kind of fear that paralyzed his faith. He lived his life so much by fear instead of faith that he found it difficult to believe that God was with him. When God called him into leadership of the army of Israel, Gideon did not see any way he could fulfill God’s call. “Me? No way! I’m afraid.

I suspect many of us struggle with this kind of fear. So how do we go from being a person dominated by fears to a person of faith? When God calls us to step out in faith, if we are fearful we may tend to respond, “No way can I do this. You want to use my gifts for your kingdom? Lord, I can’t do what you want me to because I don’t have (fill in the blank) the skills … education … credentials … income… (whatever).” When God calls us, how do we get past our paralyzing fear?

Gideon’s story begins with several identifiers that help us realize just how fearful Gideon is by nature. First, Gideon is threshing his wheat in a winepress. Threshing wheat takes place on the top of a hill. The wheat is crushed and then tossed into the air on the top of a windy hill so that the wind can blow away the lighter chaff. The heavier wheat seeds then fall to the ground and are collected to make into flour. However, Gideon is threshing his wheat in a hiding place. He is so afraid of the terrorists that he refuses to go outside and take any chances. “What if they see me?”

A second example of his fear shows up when he meets the angel of God. When the angel of the Lord speaks, Gideon cries out in terror, “Help me!” His fear of the angel was like our fear as we fled our homes during the fires. How many of us said the same prayers as Gideon “Help me! Help me!?”

The third example of his fear shows up when God tells him to burn the idols of his village in order to call his people back to faith. He slips out in the middle of the night because he is afraid of what his family and neighbors will think if they see him obeying God. Once he destroys the idols in secret he returns home to hide from the rest of the villagers. This is not a bold, confident personality!

Fear is debilitating. What we are afraid to confront holds us captive. We may fear evil too much to stand up to it. We may fear our own ability to answer God’s call. We may fear what others will think of us if we attempt something and fail. Fear often keeps God’s people from stepping out in faith.

I am thinking of a story I heard a couple years ago from one of our church members. He grew up in a small church that probably never had more than 30 members and a board of 5 or 6 elders. At his father’s funeral he learned about his father’s faith and leadership in the local congregation. One of the men at the funeral told this story.

“One evening on our way into an elder’s meeting your dad told me, ‘I think we ought to increase our church missions budget by $1000. If I make a motion to that effect will you second it?’ In those days that was significant for our little church. I told him I was willing to but did not see how we could find it in the budget. Then your dad pulled out a check from his pocket already made out for $1000. He told me that if the church elders were not able to step out in faith and approve the motion he would donate the check to Billy Graham. He explained to me before the meeting that I was not to tell the rest of the group about his willingness to fund it, but just listen for the elders’ faith.

“That evening, your father listened as one elder after another explained why we could not step out in faith since we did not have the finances to cover any additional missions programs. The debate was long and heated. The loudest elders exuded fear. They voted the motion down. After the vote your dad winked at me and it was never referred to again.”

What opportunities might we be missing because we are afraid? Gideon was paralyzed by his fear.

I love the way God started at the place of Gideon’s fear and help nurture him slowly out of his fear and into a life of faith. When God called Gideon to lead, Gideon insisted on a sign that it was really God speaking to him. “I’ll put out a fleece on the ground and you make the ground dry but the fleece wet.” God performed the sign. Then Gideon, still afraid, tested God again. “This time I’ll put out the fleece and you make it dry, but the ground wet.” Finally, with an incremental growth in his faith, Gideon accepts the call to lead the army.

Unfortunately, transformation does not happen through one simple step. God next helps Gideon see that fear in his troops will be debilitating for them in battle. Gideon sounded the call for an Israelite army to gather. Thirty two thousand responded. Then the Lord told Gideon to let anybody go home if they were afraid of the coming battle. The Bible tells us that two thirds of the army went home. God insisted on a second test to determine who would fight in the coming battle. By the time God sent Gideon and the Israelite army into the battle they were only 300 soldiers against tens of thousands of Midianites. Then God told Gideon how he was going to win the battle.

The story has an ironic twist. As Gideon is learning to face his own fears, he realized how paralyzing fear would be to the enemy army. When he overhears one of the enemies describing a nightmare of destruction, he realizes God is going to use their fear against their own army. Once Gideon faced the power of fear in his own life, he could harness that same fear factor to beat his enemies. The sounds of trumpets in the middle of the night and shouts of the Israelites caused the Midianite army to panic. They fearfully grabbed their weapons and lashed out at each other in craziness. They cut each other down while the three hundred Israelites stood on the surrounding hills and watched the horrible frenzy. The story ends with a Midianite captain being captured in a winepress where he was hiding.

Did you catch the irony? The story began with Gideon hiding in a winepress, now the enemy captain is captured while hiding in a winepress. Here is the truth: lose perspective when we are caught in fear. What we cannot face captures us. So…. What are you afraid of?

Jesus told the disciples to take courage and not be afraid. Peter took Jesus at his word and asked to be allowed to join him walking on the water. As long as Peter focused on Jesus he was doing fine. Nevertheless, when he became fearful of the waves he sank and had to cry out in fear, “Lord, help me!” Jesus used the moment of saving Peter to show how fear connects with faith. When we focus on the waves, our fear keeps us from trusting Jesus. When we confidently know God is with us, we can step out of the boat.

Let me ask you: What are you afraid of?