Rabbi Schneider - DEATH, The Mother of All Fears

TOPICS: Be Strong and Courageous, Fear, Death

The bible teaches the mother of fears is the fear of death. I'm reading now from the Book of Hebrews, chapter number 2 verse number 14, speaking of Jesus, speaking of Yeshua. It says that he partook of flesh and blood like us, that he became one of us; I'm picking up in the middle of verse 14 chapter number 2: That Yeshua became one of us, taking on flesh and blood, and coming to earth. That through death, in other words, that through Yeshua dying, he might release us. That through death, he might render powerless, he who have the power of death, that is the devil, and here we go. And might deliver those who through the fear of death were being subject to slavery all their lives. What does it say? That Yeshua died for us that we could be released from death so that we wouldn't have to die, and that in doing that, he freed us from being enslaved to the devil through the fear of death.

Let me read it again. Verse number 14 says that Yeshua became one of us. And then in verse 15, he died in our place that he might deliver those, verse 15, who through the fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. In other words, the Scripture is saying here that the devil was tormenting human beings with the fear of death, and keeping them in bondage, enslaved to fear through the fear of death their entire life. Now some of you that I'm speaking to right now; you may feel you know, I have no fear of death, and hallelujah for many of you, you have no fear of death any longer, because Jesus, hallelujah, praise the Lord, has set you free. But perhaps beloved, there are others that are watching right now, that deep down inside, you're still afraid to die and you might not even be conscious of it.

You see sometimes as children, we get this fear of death, but then what we do is we kind of block it out of our mind, we push it out of our consciousness, but it's not resolved. I wanna talk to you today about the fear of death and that why we're children of God, we don't need to be afraid, and the reason I wanna talk about the fear of death beloved, is because if we are afraid of dying, then this root of the fear of death, this root that we're calling the fear of dying, can be a source that other fears will grow off of, and we don't realize that the other things that we may be being afraid of in life are actually the result of being afraid to the fear of death. Because sometimes if the root isn't resolved, and the root or the mother fear here is the fear of death; if that isn't resolved, then all types of other fears can branch off from that and we don't realize that the other fears that are branching off from it are really the result of the fear of death. And I'm gonna try to bring this into greater clarity as we go on in the message today.

I remember personally, perhaps some of you remember personally as a young person, I was terrified of dying. Most of you know I'm Jewish, the Lord appeared to me back in 1978, and revealed himself to me, and I came to faith in Jesus, in Yeshua HaMashiach hallelujah, my Messiah in 1978. But before that, I didn't know God personally. I went to Hebrew school, I was Bar Mitzvah'd, but I didn't have a personal relationship with God, and I was never taught in Hebrew school about dying and about what would happen to me when I die. I was terrified of dying. In fact, I developed a strange phobia; I might have been like maybe ten years old at the time. I don't remember exactly how old I was; I just remember the torment I was in. And I used to, the devil put on my mind, and I didn't even know at the time that there was a devil, but the devil put this in my mind: he said if you touched your glass, the glass with your left hand, than you've also got a touch it, I guess this is my left hand.

If you touch the glass with your left hand, than you've got a touch it with your right hand, because if you don't do with your right hand what you do with your left hand, or if you don't do with your left hand what you do with your right hand, you're gonna die. And so I was in bondage with this thing. I mean there's people today that are still tormented with this, this thing obsessive compulsive disorder. So whatever I would touch with one hand, I had to touch with the other hand, and I was afraid if I didn't touch it with the other hand, I would die. I remember one year we were in, going on vacation in the car. And remember the car ride over there the whole time, every thing, time I touched something with one hand and I didn't touch it, I was gonna die.

Finally, praise God, the Lord just delivered me from it. I mean I don't know how it happened, it didn't last that long, it maybe lasted two or three months, and then hallelujah it broke, it's over, I've never had a problem since. But I just bring that story to your attention cause I was being held in bondage to the fear of death. Strange psychological diseases people have, because they're afraid to die. I remember when I was a young boy in school, I was probably in 4th grade, and we had an elementary school that went from probably 1st grade to 5th grade, and I was, and I was not a great student; I was not a good student at all. In fact, I was a slower student in those years; it seemed like as I got older, the Lord supernaturally increased my intelligence, I kid you not. But as a young child, I was not a superior person academic-wise anyway.

In fact I was in the, they had three reading groups; I was like in the slowest reading group. My, my handwriting was really sloppy, it's still very sloppy today. Total sloppy, not a good student, sloppy handwriting, you know, just not an ideal student. So we have this thing going on in our elementary school, and it's a health fair. And what they're doing is, they said everybody in the school, ages from 1st grade to 5th grade, I want you to make a poster, and I want you to make a poster with some type of health slogan on there, some type of safety slogan on there, something for prevention on there. So because I was afraid of dying, one of the things I was afraid of was; you remember some of you, I'm gonna be 54 in soon here, and I remember they used to have thermometers in those days when I was a kid.

And they weren't like the thermometers today, the digital thermometers, but many of you remember, most of you probably remember, they were the glass thermometers with the little tube of glass and then the silver mercury inside. And I knew that mercury was poisonous and I was afraid, because I was afraid of dying, that when someone held a thermometer, by accident it was gonna slip out of their hand, it was gonna fall on the ground, the glass tube would break, the mercury that was inside would come out, and that mercury was poisonous, plus it bounced. I was afraid the thermometer was gonna drop, the mercury was gonna come out, it was gonna bounce off the floor, it was gonna come into my mouth and I was gonna die. I mean it was a weird phobia, but it was real to me, I was afraid beloved, of dying.

And so getting back to this health fair that the school was having, I made my poster of a medicine cabinet, and keeping all the poison safe, and keeping the thermometer in a safe place, and you know and it was a kind of strange poster. It was the only poster of its kind that was made in the school. Everybody else probably made posters about, you know shoveling off the sidewalk, and you know don't cross the other this street without looking both ways, but here I am, I'm making a poster about keeping the poisons in a safe place and being careful with the thermometer. And so they call the whole school together one day, probably I don't know, 400 or so kids in the auditorium there for the health fair finale.

And they're saying, okay, we've selected five posters from the whole school that are the most outstanding posters for our health fair, and I couldn't believe it when they called my name; they held up my poster and called my name to come forward, and I won a transistor radio. And it was so hilarious, cause my artwork was so terrible and my writing was so sloppy, but I was the only one in the school that made this poison poster, and I think because I covered an area of safety that no one else covered, they gave me the poster, but they didn't know that the reason I made it wasn't because I was so safety conscious, but it was because I was so fear conscious.

The point that I'm making beloved is: the fear of death is real, and even though we may remember being afraid to die as a child, but may not be conscious of it as an adult; for some of you that fear of death may still be there, lurking underneath the service, surface rather, and it's responsible for some of the fears that you may be having today. So let's take a look a little bit at the fear of death. Remember this is very important, because it says in Hebrews 2: 14 and 15 that Jesus came to destroy the devil and to set free those who had been bondage, who had been in bondage to the fear of death through the devil. Why is the fear of death so powerful? Because first of all beloved, the fear of death is the ultimate fear of being out of control.

Think about this: when your, when your environment is in control, when you're walking into a place that's familiar, when you're walking into a place that you pretty much know how things are gonna go, you feel pretty secure, you don't feel afraid. But if you're walking into an environment that is completely, an environment that you're not in control in, that anything could happen; that is a scary place to be. And if you think about this fear that's associated with not being in control, beloved death is the ultimate place of not being in control, isn't it? When someone dies, what control do they have about what's gonna happen to them when they die? Nothing; they're totally at the whim of this thing called "death" that's bigger than they are.

And so this fear of not being in control is the root of so many fears that people have. And often times what's underneath this is the fear of death. That people when they were children, they were afraid to die, they never came to a place of faith in Jesus, or never got secure in their faith in Jesus so that they're really confident that they're going to heaven when they die, so deep inside they're still afraid of dying, and perhaps beloved, I'm speaking to many of you right now. I wanna comfort you and say first of all that the Scripture says to you: these things have been written, speaking of the Scriptures John says: These things have been written so that you who believe in the name of the Son of God, may know that you have eternal life.

So Father right now, in Yeshua's name, I come against any demonic stronghold of the fear of death that may be attached to any of your people's hearts and minds right now. I break it off in Jesus' name, Yeshua, I break the curse of the fear of death off your people now, and I say be set free in the love God in Yeshua's name.

Because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish hallelujah, but have everlasting life. The fear beloved, of losing control, but if we can conquer the fear of death and know that we don't have to be afraid of the loss of control at death, beloved then we can also face things in this life that we may not be in control of, with much more confidence. In other words, if we can trust God with what's gonna happen to us when we die, then we can also trust him with what's gonna happen to us if the economy gets worse. If we can trust our lives to God that when we die, he's gonna take care of us, then when he die, he's gonna bring us to heaven; then we can also trust God if, God forbid, you would lose your job.

See if you can trust God with death beloved, then we can trust him with anything that happens in this life, because what happens in this life is not as overwhelming as what will happen at death. And so the fear beloved, of being out of control. Think about this: have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were faced with something bigger than you? Have you ever for example, been afraid that you were gonna blurt out something that you didn't wanna say: just some strange fear? This is the fear beloved, of being out of control and sometimes it can be traced back to the fear of dying where you're ultimately out of control. Have you ever been driving down the road and you just suddenly got this fear that you were gonna like just swerve to the left or swerve to the right involuntarily? Anybody ever experience that? Well that could often be traced beloved, to the fear of being out of control at death.

So right now Father God, I breath shalom, and wholeness, and peace, and healing on your people. Father, that you're in control, and because you're in control and you hold our lives in your hand, hallelujah, Father God, all is well.

Jesus breathed on his disciples and he said: do not be afraid, then he said, shalom, peace, my peace I give to you. It's the same peace that stilled the sea that Jesus breathed on. It's the same peace beloved, that exists before the throne of God where we read in Revelation, there's a sea of glass. What's a sea of glass? No ripples, no waves, everything completely still and calm; that's how God wants us to live in this life. Fortify us O God, I pray, with your peace and with your grace. Strengthen us O God to walk in your power and shalom, no more fear in Jesus' name.

You see beloved, Abraham, when he heard the voice of the Lord, and God said to him, follow me Abraham, I want you to leave everything that you have; I want you to leave your family, and the idols, and your land, and I want you to follow me to a land that you know not of, but it's gonna be a land of milk and honey: I'm gonna bless you there. That was a big risk for Abraham, to let go of those fears and to trust God, but look at the reward. And some you need to let, you need to take, you need to give God a chance. You've been hanging onto these fears, and you need to let go of those fears beloved, and give God a chance. You need to let it go, hallelujah and trust the Lord. The fear of the unknown, we're talking about the fear of the loss of control that sometimes it's traced back to the fear of death and also the fear of the unknown.

Some people beloved, are afraid to do anything new; they only wanna drive the same route every day; they don't wanna explore any new territory. They want to keep themselves locked in routine and locked in habit. If somebody moves the room around just a little bit, they get all disturbed; they don't want anything to be unknown, but beloved, this can be a death grip and sometimes it's caused by fear. You see when we surrender ourselves to the Lord at death, knowing there's nothing to be afraid of; then we can free ourselves to live life. We don't get locked beloved, in some type of paradigm where we begin to get more and more closed in through the boundaries of some type of satanic dominion of fear. And we need to resist when as we age this tendency to fear, because the older we get, the easier it is to let fear in sometimes in the natural.

You know we don't wanna go here, we're afraid we're gonna get hurt. We don't wanna do this, it's not safe, and pretty soon you can develop a mindset where you begin to think that way and pretty soon your world becomes more and more closed in and you find yourself living in this enclosed place where there's no life. But God beloved, came to give life and to give it more abundantly. He doesn't want us to be afraid to venture out. He doesn't want us to be afraid of the unknown. It must have been very hard again for Abraham to leave that which was familiar for him and to follow the Lord into the promise land, but look at the reward. And I wanna encourage you beloved, if you're aging and your older; don't stop living, don't let the unknown keep you trapped. Keep exploring, trust God.

Listen: if you can trust God to take you into the unknown that's gonna take place after death; I mean we know the known is heaven. We know Jesus said: I go and prepare a place for you. We know he said, in my Father's house, there are many mansions, but it's still a mystery. We don't know exactly what it's gonna look like, so there's an element of unknown to it. If you can trust him beloved, to take you to that place that we call heaven at death, then you can trust him now to keep living and to keep giving you an abundant life.

You see a lot of people that have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease aren't, do not really have Alzheimer's disease. Now don't misunderstand, I know that it's a real disease and that some people truly have Alzheimer's disease, but I'm just simply saying that many people that have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, it isn't Alzheimer's disease. What it is, is a weak mind. You see what happens is, sometimes when people get older, they begin to become prone to fearing, and when they begin to prone to fear, they stop living, and they don't wanna go expose themselves to anything new. They wanna just make their world smaller and smaller. Well pretty soon all they do is they stay home.

Well what happens when you get yourself into an existence like this is the mind get weak, because the mind was designed beloved, to be an open system. In other words by open system, I mean that the mind was designed to communicate with the world outside of itself. We live in a world and our mind was designed to communicate or to respond to the world outside ourselves that we live in. But when a person gets old and they stop exposing themselves to new stimulus, when they stop exposing themselves to new things, when they stop exposing themselves to the world and activity that's going on around them, and instead just withdraw to sit in a small place without any communication, or without anything to respond to; the mind just like a muscle, if it's not used, it gets weak.

And it can look like Alzheimer's, but in reality, sometimes it's just a lack of use, and sometimes the reason for that lack of use could be pointed back beloved, to fearing. Fear beloved, is from the devil, it is foul, and it needs to be conquered. We also find beloved, as we consider the fear of death, that the fear, the fear of death is associated with the fear of harm for many. In other words a person is afraid, well what's gonna happen to me. They're not only afraid of the unknown, they're not only afraid of loss of control, but some are also afraid of hell and what's gonna happen to me when I die, and will I go to hell.

And of course we know that hell is a real place, and we should be afraid of it if we're not believers, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but if, if we are believers, Yeshua told us, he said: little flock, be of good cheer he said, for it's my Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So the Lord doesn't want us to be afraid to die. We just got done reading in the Book of 1 John chapter 4, that perfect love casteth out fear, because fearing involves judgment and if we're confident in the love of God that he loves us, and that he embraces us, and that he likes us, and that he's not gonna judge us, but he's gonna bring us into heaven; we're not gonna be afraid of harm at death. But still many are afraid of harm at death, even of some of God's children are afraid of harm at death.

And when you're afraid of harm at death beloved, this is a very deep rooted, huge, significant fear and it can affect many different aspects of the way you think. In other words, you may be struggling with other fears in life, and you don't realize that the other fears that you're having are really a result of the fact that you're afraid that when you die, you're gonna go to hell. So let's just ask the Lord right now beloved, to release us from the fear of harm at death. Especially I'm praying now for those of you that know him already.

So Father God, I'm praying for these that are watching me through this broadcast right now. Father, thank you that you're a loving God, and that by nature of who you are, you impart yourself, you give, and I'm asking Father, right now. I wanna ask you if you're watching right now and God is speaking to you, just to lift your hand to the Lord. Father, I'm asking you right now through your Holy Spirit, to release your Holy Spirit and ministering angels to these Father that are even kneeling with me right now. I even wanna encourage you to kneel with me right now as an act of humility. Father, I'm asking you to right now, once and for all, release them from the fear of death, from the fear of dying, from the fear of going to hell, from the fear of suffering, from the fear of the unknown and from the fear of the loss of control.

Father, we bless you right now, we receive it by faith, we conquer Satan, we subdue his lies and his fears under our feet. We break the power of the fear of judgment off our life and Father, we look up to you from where our salvation comes from, thanking you Father, and praising that you're a good God. Thanking you Jesus that you said to us, that you went to prepare a place for us, and if it was not so, that you wouldn't have told us it was so. That in your Father's house are many mansions, that you told us to be of good cheer, that you told us to rejoice that our names are written in the Book of Life, that we're going to heaven.

So Father, right now, we break off us, we break off our hearts the fear of death. We break you off our life Satan, in Jesus' name, and we trample you under our feet. Father, we wanna praise you right now for who you are. We magnify you Father God, as greater than every fear that we'll ever face. You are bigger, and capable, and able Father, that we can face everything that we're ever gonna face, victorious, because he that's born of God overcomes the world. Father, we choose to be bold and courageous to trust in your love, knowing that you'll be with us, that you're a shield to us, that you go before us and that as your children Father, that neither death nor life, things past, thing present or things to come can ever separate us from your love. Father, we choose to love you and not to fear, in Jesus' name.