No One Kicks a Dead Dog: Seven Fears to Confront and Conquer

Sermon outline

God has not given us a spirit of fear, so believers must confront and conquer seven everyday fears by seeking God's approval rather than people's and stepping forward in faith.

1. The first fear: what people think of you

   Fearing what people think turns us into people-pleasers instead of God-pleasers. He calls it approval addiction, and says from life's experience that you can never please everybody, so make the move from pleasing people to pleasing God. When the devil brings thoughts that contradict the Word, resist them out loud, and when you feel lonely or left out, rest in the love of your heavenly Father.

   Illustration: You can do cartwheels or clear a high bar of 2.5 metres, and some people will still never be pleased.

   “So we base our decisions not on what people think, but rather on what God thinks.”

   • Galatians 1:10

2. The second fear: the fear of pleasing people (imperfection and perfectionism)

   Many hold back from God's work because they feel imperfect, but all of us are imperfect and that is no excuse. God chooses the foolish things to confound the wise: David was still called a man after God's own heart, and Paul, who had persecuted the church, was chosen and did more in the epistles than the rest of the apostles. Attacks come when you get involved, and greater is He that is in you.

   Illustration: No one kicks a dead dog: when people try to do you harm, it means you are doing something right.

   “God doesn't look for perfect results. He looks for available vessels.”

   • 1 Corinthians 1:27
   • Acts 13:22
   • Acts 9:15-16
   • 1 John 4:4
   • John 10:10

3. The third fear: criticism

   The people whose approval we want often criticise us because they want us to stay at their level, and relatives may still remember how naughty you were thirty or forty years ago. Don't chase every report of what was said about you. God is your defence, your shield, the lifter of your head and the author and finisher of your life.

   Illustration: Family members who 'wrote you off' as a child are still in reverse gear while you are driving forward.

   “They're in reverse gear. We're driving forward.”

   • Matthew 6:33
   • Psalm 3:3
   • Hebrews 12:2

4. The fourth fear: change

   Many people are caught between wanting to change and fearing change, but change is not a bad thing. Every year we learn more about God and the anointing, so condition your mind to see that you are moving forward and thank God you are not where you were.

   Illustration: The Wright brothers started with bamboo and paper while others laughed at them, and today jumbo jets carry people to another country in a few hours.

   “Because without change, there's no growth. And anything that doesn't grow is dying.”

5. The fifth fear: missing God

   Some people halt before a decision in case they miss God, but if you take a wrong turn He will bring you back, and it is better to try and fail than to do nothing. Our journey is one of faith: by faith we walk forward, call things that be not as though they were and speak healing to the sick. He leads the church in rebuking the spirit of fear.

   “He has already compensated for your mistakes.”

   • Romans 4:17
   • Ephesians 1:6

6. The sixth fear: sacrifice

   Anything we do for God requires an investment. We do not give out of compulsion but to say thank you, because no money can pay for salvation, the presence of the Holy Spirit or the anointing, which grows as we walk in humility. The devil wants to stop us expanding the kingdom, but when we sow into it, God gives back.

   Illustration: As a boy he took a short cut through a graveyard to his mother's workplace and always ran because he feared death, but he says God's people are not to be sad, morbid or fearful.

   “The truth is anything we do for God requires an investment.”

   • 2 Corinthians 9:7

7. The last fear: making a wrong decision

   Decisions come every day, so don't make them by your feelings but trust the Holy Spirit, because the double-minded are unstable in all their ways. Make the decision, and if it is wrong you will get back on the right road. Keep away from naysayers, remember the righteous are not left begging, and use the Word to speak things into existence as God did in the beginning.

   Illustration: He admits that after many leaps of faith he went home asking how he would pay for it, and God proved Himself again and again.

   “Don't swim in the shallow end. Jump into the deep end.”

   • James 1:7-8
   • Psalm 37:25
   • Genesis 1:3
   • Hebrews 12:2