Breaking Free from Fear

Breaking Free from Fear
Exodus 6:28-7:7
April 22-23, 2023

Introduction

ILLUS – A Southern Thunderstorm

1. It’s amazing what fear can do.
2. If you’ve ever taken a ride on the “fear train” then you know it’s a ride that can take you to some very scary places.
3. How can we break free from fear?
4. During our study, we will discover how the LORD can help us break free from fear by looking at what He did for Moses in Exodus 6:28-7:7.           

Exodus 6:28-7:7

Context

1. In Exodus 3, we’re told that after 400 years in Egypt, in fulfillment of His promise to Abraham in Genesis 15, God revealed that He was going to deliver Israel from slavery.

2. From a burning bush on Mount Sinai, God commissioned Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt.

3. But sensing some hesitation, God attempted to reassure Moses by giving him promises and signs which would confirm that God had commissioned Moses.

a. Promise: God would deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt and bring them “to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey” (3:8).

b. Promise: God would be with Moses (3:12).

c. Promise: After Moses brought Israel out of Egypt, they would “worship God” at Mount Sinai (3:12).

d. Promise: Israel would “pay heed” to what Moses said (3:18).

e. Promise: God would strike Egypt with miraculous judgments and Pharaoh would eventually let Israel go (3:20).

f. Promise: Israel “would plunder the Egyptians” as they left Egypt (3:22).

g. Sign: Moses’ staff turned into a serpent (4:2-5).

h. Sign: Affliction and cleansing of leprosy (4:6-7).

i. Sign: Water from Nile River turned to blood (4:8-9).

4. In addition to these six promises and three signs, in Exodus 3:14, God also revealed His personal name to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” (“Yahweh” is translated as “LORD” in our English Bibles).

5. According to Exodus 6:2-3, when God revealed His personal name, Yahweh, to Moses on Mount Sinai, God had revealed something about Himself to Moses which had not been revealed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

6. In essence, God was proclaiming that He, the great “I AM,” “Yahweh,” could and would provide all that Moses and Israel needed.

a. The name “Yahweh,” “I AM,” reveals that God is self-existent, eternal, infinite, never changing, all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present.

b. The name “Yahweh” also reveals that God is the promise-making, promise-keeping God of Israel.

c. That should have been the end of the story. . . Yahweh would be with Moses when he spoke to Israel and confronted Pharaoh.

Transition – But was it good enough for Moses?

• The answer is a resounding “No.”
• Notice how the LORD broke Moses free from fear. . .

I. The LORD Confronts Your Fears (28-30)

A. The LORD knows your secret fears (28-29)

1. God repeatedly told Moses to confront Pharaoh. Why?

a. Because God wanted to deliver Israel and had chosen Moses to do so.

b. But before God could use Moses, Moses needed to learn how to walk by faith and not by sight.

APPL – One way the LORD confronts our fears is through a crisis.

2. God put His finger on the issue that created fear in Moses.
3. So, God took Moses out of his comfort zone to strengthen him by stretching him.

APPL – This is something that good parents will do with their children, a parent will stretch their child in order to strengthen their child.

ILLUS – Fetching a can of tomato soup

APPL – God knows our secret fears and He wants to set us free from them, all of them.

2 Timothy 1:7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (NKJV)

B. Confess your fears to the LORD (30)

1. Once again, Moses used the same old excuse.

a. “Unskilled in speech.”

b. Pharaoh would not listen.

c. So, send someone else.

2. But the Book of Acts paints a different picture regarding Moses’ speaking ability

Acts 7:22, And Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.

3. While it’s true that Moses was making excuses, I believe it’s also true that it’s how he felt.

APPL – When your heart is overwhelmed by fear, the best thing you can do is to confess your fears to the LORD because. . .

• He cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.

• His peace will stand guard over your heart and mind.

Philippians 4:6-7, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

4. Moses felt inadequate for the task and overwhelmed by the weight of responsibility.

APPL – Again, if we are honest, who is adequate for God’s work?

ILLUS – Leading worship at a community night of worship

2 Corinthians 3:4-6, And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant

5. Moses was afraid of failure.

ILLUS – There are two problems with quitting:

1. Quitting can become a way of life.
2. You will never know how things might have turned out if you had given God room to move.

APPL – Would Moses have failed if Pharaoh rejected him? No.

• The only way Moses would have failed was if he disobeyed the LORD’S
• We must leave the results with God.

APPL – Why was God so patient with Moses?

• God knows our frame.

Psalm 103:13-14, Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

• God is not finished with us yet.

Philippians 1:6, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Transition – The next principle to help you break free from fear is to. . .

II. Fix Your Eyes upon the LORD (1-7)

• I submit that when you’re gripped by fear and anxiety, it’s because you’re fixing your eyes on the problem.
• In order to break free from fear you must fix your eyes upon the LORD.

Psalm 121:1-4, I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

A. The LORD is all you need (1-5)

1. To address Moses’ fear, the Lord brought the fear in Moses to the surface.
2. To free Moses from fear, theLord reminded Moses of the Lord’s sufficiency.

APPL – God is willing and able to meet and supply all that we need.

Philippians 4:13, 19, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. . . And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus

3. Next. the Lord made Moses His ambassador.

4. Then the Lord gave Moses a preview of what would happen next (3-4).

a. Pharaoh would harden his own heart first, then God would fortify Pharaoh’s hard heart.

b. Next, God would multiply His signs and wonders to bring out Israel after Egypt had been severely judged.

APPL – God is directing our paths too.

Psalm 32:8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.

5. God revealed His goals to Moses (5).

a. That Egypt may know that He is the Lord.

b. And all of Egypt’s gods were false.

APPL – God will not leave Himself without a witness.

• God is using His Church today to communicate the same message.
• Jesus Christ is God’s Son and salvation is found through no one else but Him.

John 14:6, Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

6. God reassured Moses that he was not alone because He was with him.

APPL – Why is God’s presence important?

• God’s presence means His favor is upon us.
• God’s presence means His power will prevail for us.
• God’s presence guarantees is our victory.
• Therefore, there is no need to fear.

A.W. Tozer, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Psalm 73:25-26, 28, Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. . . as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the LORD God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.

B. If the Lord commands it, then do it (6-7)

1. “So Moses and Aaron did it; as the LORD commanded them, thus they did.”
2. Genesis 6:22 was the last time this statement described someone in the Bible.

Genesis 6:22, Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

APPL – Up to this point Moses had been going through the motions.

• But something shifted in him.
• It was different now, faith began to arise in Moses.
• Moses was in. He was committed to obeying God’s commands by stepping out in faith.
• Sure, he was 80 years old, but now his eyes were fixed on the LORD, not fear.
• From this point on that phrase was used of Moses repeatedly in the Old Testament.

Hebrews 3:5, Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later

• If the Lord commands it, then do it.

Conclusion

APPL – Are you walking by faith or living in fear?

• If fear is getting or has gotten the upper hand, God wants to set you free.
• In fact, it’s God’s will for you to be forever free from fear.
• Will you confess your fears to the Lord?
• Will you fix your eyes upon the Lord?
• Will you trust the LORD?
• The Lord is all you need.

Psalm 56:3, When I am afraid, I will put my trust