“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” – Romans 1:16 ESV
Unleash a new understanding of fear! Adrian Despres dives deep into the question: Is Fear our Ally?
For those who prefer to read instead of watch, you’ll also find the video transcript below.
Weekly Challenge:
This week, every time you catch yourself feeling afraid because of deeper shame, respond by thanking God for the chance to depend on Him and step forward in courage.
Video Transcript:
All of us have fear. Every one of us has fear. If you don’t have fear, the reason why you don’t have fear is because you haven’t shared your faith yet. But every one of us who have shared our faith—raise your hand if you’re scared or afraid to share your faith, raise your hand. If you don’t have your hand up, that’s because you haven’t done it yet.
Paul came to the Corinthian church with much fear and trembling.1 Corinthians 2:3, “I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling” (NIV). That Greek word for fear is phobos, like arachnophobia—that’s the only fear I have legitimately. Spiders eat people, so I’m afraid of them. Snakes? No problem. I just grab them—I don’t care. But spiders? They just… okay. So, my point is, everyone has fear. The enemy is not fear. The enemy this morning is shame.
Fear is actually the ally for our faith and for our walk with Christ. Why? See, fear is a barrier. If there is no fear, there is no need to be bold or courageous. So, what does courage do? What does boldness do? Boldness helps us go through fear. The enemy is not fear—fear is our ally. Fear makes me study more. Fear brings me here this morning so I can learn how to do this stuff better. That’s what fear does for me. Fear makes me learn.
My brother is an agnostic—upgraded to agnostic recently. So, I’ve studied, I’ve studied my face off to try to lead him to the Lord. I’ve learned a bunch of material that I’m going to share with you this morning because I want to lead him to the Lord. But sometimes, I’m afraid to share my faith, and so I need courage.
The enemy is not fear, though. The enemy is shame. That’s why Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (ESV).
So, the enemy is shame. Shame is a different kind of fear. Shame is the fear of what people think of me, and selfishness is a top enemy to sharing your faith—when you’re afraid of what other people think. Remember what Peter said when he was taken in Acts, Chapter 5 and he was on trial for preaching the Gospel? Peter said, “We must obey God rather than men” (ESV). Shame says, “We must obey men rather than God.” And shame is our number one enemy in sharing our faith.
I don’t want to be ashamed because the Gospel is the power of God. That word power in Greek is dunamis, from which we get the word dynamite. And that dynamite—when we share our faith—is like lighting a fuse and sticking it right into a person’s soul. The Lord’s job is to save people, not ours. It’s just our job to correctly handle the word of truth and help them.