The enemy’s role in our life is to speak despair to our dreams and say “you won’t get that new building for your charity, you won’t make anything of yourself, you’ll never make it in your marriage, you won’t write that book, you won’t have children, you won’t get out of debt, your kids will end up worse off than you, you won’t extend your house.” There is never any love, or hope or joy in what the enemy says.

So he will try and find something to enslave you with to keep you down. It will be more subtle than just “being afraid” He will deal shrewdly with you and put slave masters over you to work you hard with bricks and mortar of pain, anxiety and lonliness. He will place something in your path to try to trip you up and attempt to hold you back.

Interestingly, everything Pharaoh feared in the passage from Exodus 1 we have been looking at over the past three days, came to pass, in spite of his diligent efforts to prevent it. The reason is, of course, that the Pharaoh’s plans were contrary to the purposes and promises of God. God never despairs of us.

Fear of man isolates us.

Pharaoh acts alone. There is no-one advising him. He is newbie from a different dynasty who knew nothing about how Joseph had saved the Eygptians from famine. That’s a pretty sizeable hole in his understanding of the Israelites history. That’s like not knowing that Robbie Williams was in Take That! He does not see the Israelites as a blessing, but as a threat. They are a bunch of foreigners who threaten his power base and make him feel insecure and isolated.

They believed in One God. They didn’t serve lots of gods like the Egyptions did.
They had funny laws and ate odd food…They had lived in Egypt long enough, but they still behaved as if they were their own people. This made Pharoah nervous.

This is a description of UTMOST fear.
So, let me ask you. What are you controlled by? What do you feel despairing about? What do you sense isolates you from others or from God? What atmosphere or UTMOST fear are you dwelling in? What kind of air are you breathing in?

I want to tell you something amazing today. I want to give you a new definition of fear. FEAR equals worship. This will really help you, if you struggle with fear. This is a real key.

Why do I say that Fear is a form of worship? Because what you fear Lords it over you. It has mastery over you. You may never have thought about it like that. But it is true.

What are you afraid of? Let me give you some examples?
People, work, change, death, lack of money, illness, separation, addiction, being alone, killer bees.

All of us from time to time will meet fears like this. But how do we respond? Fear needs an environment to grow in. You can choose to feed your fears, worship them even, or you can starve them.

What choice will you make today?