Bible Studies
Unlearning Fear : RISK: Facing Fear
By Rev. Jeff Dixon, Senior Equipping Minister, CCC Ministries
Nov 3, 2007, 07:37

Unlearning Fear

RISK: Facing Fear

1 John 4:16-18

*These notes are the teaching notes used in Celebration Worship. They are in an outline form, you can listen or watch the celebration worship experience and follow along and get the most benefit from these study notes.

2 Samuel 23:20-23

Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits.

1 John 4:16-18

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

      God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Living Fear Free is Possible

(v.16-17) And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

Half of learning is learning

The other half of learning is unlearning

Sadly, unlearning is twice as hard as learning.

It is like missing your exit on the freeway. You have to drive to the next exit and then double back. Every mile you go in the wrong direction is a two-mile error.

In the same way unlearning is twice as hard and takes twice as long

It is harder to get old thoughts out of your mind than it is to get new thoughts into it…

That is what Jesus faced isn’t it?
If you take the time and look at an overview of the teachings of Jesus you see that He spent as much time helping people unlearn as learn.

He often was reverse engineering religious minds

And those can be the toughest minds to change

That is why we see and read two often repeated phrases in the Sermon on the Mount

                “you have heard it was said….

                But I say to you….

What was happening here is that Jesus was uninstalling Old Testament concepts and upgrading them with New Testament truths

If I am right…

Then a good part of spiritual growth is learning what we don’t know as well as unlearning what we do know

The trouble comes when our failure to unlearn irrational fears and misconceptions that keep us from becoming who God wants us to be

I hope that is what is happening on an ongoing basis in your life….

I hope you are upgrading your minds as we download the mind of Christ

It begins with the worst-case scenario going away after you meet Jesus

You no longer have to sweat death and judgment.

Our lives, when we decide to completely and totally follow Him are no longer bound up and bogged down. We can know and rely on the love God has for us…as we live in that love…we become confident

Living Fear Free is Practical

(v.18a) There is no fear in love

Fears…

As we begin to download the mind of Christ we have to use that new mind, the transformation taking place to face our fears and conquer them….

According to those who know these things…

There are approximately 2000 fears that have an official classification

Ex… photophobia (fear of never looking good in pictures)

Arachibutyrophobia (the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth)

Phobiaphobia (the fear of phobias)

What is interesting is that psychiatrists say that we are only born with two innate fears…the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises

That means that every other fear is learned

And that means it can be unlearned

Some of you have had the joy of extensive battery of allergy tests.

The doctor wanted to find out what allergens can trigger your asthma. You get poked  in 18 places with different allergens and told, "Don't scratch." It is like Chinese water torture. You have to resist the urge to scratch the itch for 15 of the longest minutes of your life!

But testing for allergies isn't a pointless exercise in cruel and unusual punishment, even though it might seem like it.

It is a form of reverse engineering.

A good doctor isn’t satisfied with treating my allergy symptoms. They will want to discover the root causes of reactions. And the solution isn't just avoiding those allergens. The cure is actually exposing yourself to them in small doses.

Here is my point.

The cure for the fear of failure is not success. It's failure.

The cure for the fear of rejection is not acceptance. It's rejection.

You've got to be exposed to small quantities of whatever you're afraid of.

That's how you build up immunity.

So you have to face your fears to unlearn them…

If you choose to face them, then you chose how you will face (expose yourself  to) them

The solution is…you can face them in His love

There is no better way or successful way to face them

Once you do, then it becomes practical to live fear free

Living Fear Free is Pivotal

(v.18b) But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

This verse gives us an amazing account of what happens as we deepen our relationship with Jesus

There is no fear in love…perfect love drives out fear!

One of the goals of love is fearlessness!

As we grow in our relationship to Jesus we can unlearn the fears that paralyze us and neutralize us spiritually

Faith is the process of unlearning fears!

The only fear that is God-ordained is a healthy fear of the Lord

Once we have that fear of God then we don’t have to fear anyone or anything else

Unlearning our fears is really the process of learning to trust God more and more!

When love comes…fear goes….

Once we know the true nature of God, fear is swallowed up in love

This is where making the choice to follow Jesus and become a risk taker is some important, if you don’t you always be stumbling and paralyzed by your fears…and you will NEVER be the risk taker, the unleashed and untamed follower He has called you to be…

In other words your life, the way you live, the way you will face every situations pivots, hinges, and hangs on what you decide you will let God do in your life!

Risk takers experience the same kind of fears as everyone else does

Risk takers (Lion chasers) have learned to face those fears

They don’t hide from their fears; they chase them through the snow into pits.

Newspapers called it the "Dance of Danger"—bridge construction on top of swaying catwalks and high towers, sometimes hundreds of feet in the air, blown by ill winds. This dance had even yielded a calculated fatality rate: For every one million dollars spent, one life would be lost. That was what officials could expect.

Engineers on the Golden Gate Bridge, however, believed the risks could be lowered. When construction began in 1932, numerous safety measures were put into place and strictly enforced: mandatory use of hard hats, prescription filtered eye glasses, no show-boating (cause for automatic firing), tie-off lines, and an on-site hospital helped to greatly reduce the casualty rate. After nearly four years of construction and $20 million spent, only one worker had died.

The most effective safety device, without question, was as new to bridge building as it was old to the circus: the use of a trapeze net. This large net cost $130,000 and draped sixty feet below the roadbed under construction, extending ten feet to either side. So effective was the safety net that the newspapers began running box scores: "Score on the Gate Bridge Safety Net to Date: 8 Lives Saved!" Those men whose lives had been delivered by the net were said to have joined the "Halfway to Hell Club."

Beyond that, the net had another significant benefit: it freed many of the workers from an often paralyzing sense of fear. And that, many said, helped them work more productively.

In a troubled and frightening world, Scripture tells us of the safety equipment and protections afforded the believer. We have a certain safety net beneath this life's "dance of danger."