Scare Pollution: Unlocking the Chokehold of Fear Aug. 18, 2013 Series- Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World Keep Calm and Carry On. The phrase comes from a motivational poster produced by the British government in 1939 several months before the beginning of the Second World War. The poster was supposed to be part of a campaign intended to raise public morale in anticipation of mass air attacks by the Germans on major British cities. As it turned out, the poster only had only limited distribution, and therefore was little known, until it was rediscovered in the year 2000. Since then, it has been used as the decorative theme for an ever-growing range of Keep Calm merchandise, from posters, to t-shirts, to coffee mugs. Here are just a few of the hundreds of variations you ll find these days on the Keep Calm theme: Keep calm and go shopping Keep calm and eat chocolate Keep calm and love One Direction Keep calm and swag Keep calm and kill zombies Keep calm and call Batman Keep calm and drink vodka Keep calm and rock on Keep calm and Gangnam Style and finally, my favourite one says Enough with these posters already! It s fun to have fun with these posters, but they actually point to a reality that s not very fun at all. I m talking about the reality of fear in our lives. Perhaps we so readily relate to these reminders to keep calm because we so easily and so often find ourselves anxious, worried, stressed afraid. What do you find yourself afraid these days? We re continuing with our Soul Detox series. Throughout the summer, we ve been exploring the scriptures to learn how to overcome a variety of toxic influences, emotions, and behaviours that stunt our spiritual growth, and hinder our ability to live out our identity as agents of God s world-redeeming mission. Today s message is entitled Scare Pollution: Unlocking the Chokehold of Fear. What is fear? Psychologist Peter Sheppard explains that, All fear, in essence, is fear of the future. We are afraid of things that have not yet happened, but which, if they did, might bring us pain, suffering or some other discomfort or stand in the way of some future contentment. And we are afraid that circumstances that are already causing us displeasure may continue into the future. Fear, then, by its very nature, is linked with the future with what is yet unknown, with what is yet uncertain, with the what if The fact remains, however, that we human beings are stuck at this point in time. We can t see around the bend in the road that lies ahead of us that bend called the future. And because we can t see much less control the future, many of us tend to fear it. Whether we re worrying about what the next hour holds, or the next day, or the next year, fear is future-oriented but it steals away our ability to experience the abundant life of Christ in the here-and-now. Think about your own life: When have you allowed fear to prevent you from stepping out in faith? When have you allowed fear to keep you from obeying the clear commands of God? When have you allowed fear to stop you from taking healthy risks? When have you allowed fear to distract you from enjoying and thanking God for your present blessings? When have you allowed fear to lead you into making irrational decisions in the interests of hyper self-protection? How has fear prevented you from growing into the loving, giving, Christ-like person that God made and redeemed you to be? In 2 Timothy, the Bible says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and of love and a sound mind (1:7 NKJV). Therefore, if you re full of fear, guess what? You can be sure it s not coming from God. The Word of God is clear: God does not give us a spirit of fear. If you re full of fear, someone or something else is at work, because when we re truly submitting to the lordship of Jesus Christ, God gives us a spirit of power and of love and a sound mind. What do you think the most common command in the Bible is? It s fear not. Throughout the pages of scripture, God says to his people again and again, Do not be afraid. Be strong and courageous. Trust me. Fear not. Why do you think this command is so prevalent? Is it because we are so prone to fear? Over and over in the Bible, says Pastor John Ortberg, it is fear that threatens to keep people from trusting and obeying God. Over and over in scripture there are two kinds of mindsets laid out as possibilities for the human race. One is based on faith. You can trust God. You can trust that his goodness and power are sufficient for your life, and live with a relaxed sense of confidence in him Or you can live in a mindset of fear: I m on my own. Unless I m really careful and cautious something very bad will happen to me, and I might not be able to handle it. We often think that it s the difficult circumstances we face that produce fear in us. But if you study scripture, you ll find this isn t necessarily the case. Throughout the Bible, you ll find two different sets of people who face the exact same circumstances, and yet have very different responses. Moses sends twelve spies on a reconnaissance mission into the Promised Land. Ten come back and report that, The land is flowing with abundance, for sure, but the enemies who live there are just way too powerful for us. We can t possibly take them. We have to turn back. So these ten spies are gripped with fear, but the two remaining spies Joshua and Caleb have a different spirit. They have just been on the exact same spy mission they have observed the exact same set of circumstances but what do they say? We should go in and take the land, for with God s help, we certainly can do it. When still a very young man, David takes a break from tending his father s flock to deliver supplies to his older brothers who are serving on the front lines of the Israelite army. The enemy has a great champion named Goliath, this towering hulk of a warrior, who mocks God and daily defies any Israelite solider who has the guts to come out and face him in combat. Fear. There isn t a single solider the entire Israelite army willing to face the giant. But when young David sees Goliath and hears his taunts, he stands against the giant armed with nothing but faith in God and a slingshot and drops him in his tracks.
Jesus is in a boat with his disciples and a raging storm comes upon the lake, threatening to capsize the vessel. The disciples are beside themselves with fear, but what s Jesus doing? He s taking a nap in the stern. In these and other biblical stories like them, two sets of people face exactly the same situation. Some respond with panic, some with peace. How do you account for the difference? It s not the situation. It s their mindset. If I had to put it into a single word, it would be perspective. The most important factor in terms of whether you live in faith or fear is your perspective. Your perspective makes all the difference. This morning I d like to teach through a passage of scripture that will be very familiar to many of you, but that we nonetheless need to be reminded of often. If you have your Bible, please turn with me to Matthew chapter 6, verses 25-34. In these classic verses, Jesus gives us four perspectives for overcoming fear, for overcoming worry about what the future holds. The first perspective is this: Fear accomplishes nothing. Would you say that with me? Fear accomplishes nothing. Please have a look at verse 25 of our passage. Jesus says, Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important that clothes? Here, we learn from Jesus that one of the reasons fear accomplishes nothing is that it tends to be based on a distortion of what real life is all about. Fear, worry, anxiety tend to be rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of what matters most. Jesus is saying that it s all too easy for people to become preoccupied with the externals of life like the clothes we wear or the food we eat. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Jesus asks us. One of the things that most people, including Christians, tend to worry about more than anything else is money and things that relate to it, like our jobs and material possessions. Note that the passage we re studying flows directly out of what is perhaps the most powerful statement Jesus ever made about money. Do you see the word, Therefore at the beginning of verse 25? Well, one of the rules of Bible study is that when you see a therefore you should look at the previous verses to see what it s there for. If you look at Matthew 6:24 the verse immediately preceding Jesus teaching about worry it says: No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other; or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and [what?] money. Therefore, do not worry Can we have a moment of honest confession together? Who here has courage enough to admit that sometimes you worry about money-related issues? Thanks for your honesty. You re far from alone. Jesus is well aware of our tendency to get caught up in concerns like money concerns that actually have very little to do with what real life is all about that have very little to do with what matters most. Of course, we all need to be responsible stewards and generous givers when it comes to our money and material wealth, but Jesus lovingly reminds you this morning you that your fears about the external, material concerns of life accomplish nothing, because as he says in Luke 12:15, Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot (MSG). Indeed, in verse 27 of our passage, Jesus gets especially clear about the uselessness of our fear of the future when he says, Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? In other words, worry just doesn t work. It doesn t make my life better; it makes it worse. It doesn t lengthen my life; if anything, it shortens it by adding to my stress level and raising my blood pressure. Worry doesn t solve anything, and it doesn t change my situation. One study states that 92% of what we worry about never ends up becoming reality. Now, having heard that, how many of you have already begun to worry about the 8%? The only thing that worry can change is me, by making me miserable, and by causing me to stay focused on self and circumstances instead of loving God and others. So the first perspective for overcoming fear is to do a reality check, and be reminded that fear accomplishes nothing. The second perspective we need to live by in order to overcome fear and its ill-effects is that of: Focus on God s amazing love. Let s go to verse 26, where Jesus says, Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Verse 28: And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon [one of the wealthiest kings ever] in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Here, Jesus, the master teacher, uses an argument from lesser to greater. If God bothers to take care of the birds and flowers, he will surely take care of us, because as valuable as animals and plants are, people are of infinitely greater value to God. Animals and plants don t fret or strive, and they make out just fine. If God takes perfectly good care of animals and plants, can t you trust him to take care of you a person made in God s own image? If you have infinite worth in God s eyes and you do then can t you trust him to look after your needs to provide what s best for you? Jesus says that people who don t have God in their lives the pagans chase after all these temporary concerns, and have every reason to fear the future, because they only have their own limited efforts and resources to rely on. They don t have the eternal, limitless God as their loving caregiver and provider. Maybe you re here, and you don t really know God in a personal way. Maybe you re not yet a true follower of Jesus Christ. What s God saying to you today? Maybe, for starters, he s encouraging you to come back to Cornerstone each week, to take the opportunity to begin to get to know him as your heavenly Father who, if you commit your life to him, promises to take care of you and to carry your heavy burdens and deliver you from a life of needless worry that comes from trying to make it on your own. Will
you take God up on that invitation, and start exploring the Christian faith here at Cornerstone? For those of us who do follow Jesus, God wants to remind us this morning that we can indeed trust him to take care of us. That doesn t mean everything will always work out according to our wishes in life. It won t. But it does mean that no matter your circumstances, you can trust God to come through with his loving care and provision. As Jesus says in verse 32, our heavenly Father already knows full well what we need. And yet there are times when we act as if he doesn t, or at least as if we know better about what s best for us than God does. It s at points like this that we decide to try to take matters into our own hands. Have you ever been there? In an effort to manage your fear, you go out of your way to try to control everything and everyone around you. You fret and fuss. Your anxiety may even become contagious, pulling others down with you. Pastor Rick Warren explains that, Worry is really practical atheism. It s acting as if there is no God. It s saying, I believe God either can t or won t take care of my needs, and therefore, I ve got to help myself But worry [the fear of the future] is a misunderstanding of the nature of God. We think, God doesn t love me; God s not interested in me; God s not caring about the little things in my life. We always get into trouble when we start doubting God s love for us It s amazing how we can trust God for our eternal salvation, but then say, Lord, you let me worry about how I m going to make my living and [look after] my friendships and my family and marriage and business and everything else. But if God can be trusted for eternal salvation, can he not be trusted to meet our needs in the experiences of daily life? Whenever you find yourself caught in the grip of fear about what the future holds, it s essential to remember and to focus on the depths of God s love for you. If you can let it register in your heart how much God loves you, your worries will subside, and your trust in God as your ultimate caregiver will grow. As the Bible says in 1 John 4:18, There is no fear in love. But perfect love [God s love] casts out all fear. And where has God s perfect love for us been demonstrated most fully and profoundly? On the cross: Jesus willingly suffered and died for us, so that we could have forgiveness of all our wrongdoings and know God as our Father forever. So when you re fearful about what tomorrow may hold, look to the cross. The Apostle Paul talks about this in Romans 8:32 and this is a great verse for you to commit to memory, because it will help you focus on God s perfect love that casts out all fear. Can we read this together aloud please? He who did not spare his own Son. But gave him up for us all how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? What would happen if you quote that verse every time you have a thought or face a circumstance that makes you afraid? What this verse is saying is that if God gave us Jesus, then he can be completely trusted to take care of all our lesser needs as well. Ask God specifically to help you focus on the perfect love that he has for you in Jesus. Pray, God, reveal your love to me. Make that a breath prayer that you repeat over and over and over again throughout the day. See how God answers. And I pray that you, wrote Paul in Ephesians, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God (17-19). When Paul writes of knowing God s love, he s not referring to information. He s referring to personal experience. Make Paul s prayer your own: God, reveal your love to me. Help me to grasp, to experience, the limitless dimensions of the love of Christ. Overcoming fear and worry, you see, is not about trying really hard not to be afraid. Rather, it s focusing on God s amazing love. And that relates to perspective number three: God must have first place in everything. Look at verse 33 of our passage: But seek first his kingdom [God s rule and reign in your life] and his righteousness, and all these things [all the lesser needs you tend to worry about] will be given to you as well. When worry, anxiety, and fear begin to creep into our hearts and minds, it s often a sign that our priorities are out of order. It s often a sign what we re putting other things ahead of God in our lives. To have the kind of perspective that is resistant to fear and its ill-effects, it is vital to make sure that God has first place in every area of your life. Do you know how when you get your eyes examined, and you look into that machine with the chin rest, and optometrist clicks the lenses from one setting to the next to try to determine what your prescription is? Usually the first few tries are blurry you can t quite make out the chart; everything is pretty distorted, and then, bang! The optometrist finds the perfect lenses for your eyes; everything comes into sharp focus. The clarity is fantastic. It s kind of like that when you give God first place in your life when you seek first his kingdom as Jesus puts it. Your whole life comes into focus. Your purpose becomes clear, and your priorities are set straight. You see and experience God for who he is, and how much he cares for you. You re free not to chase after all the other stuff you tend to worry about, because your life has become about chasing after God. You may not be able to see exactly what the future holds, but you have given first place to the one who holds the future, and in the process, he becomes your hope, your confidence, your firm foundation, your rock. God himself becomes your future, and, God has said, Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid (Hebrews 13:5-6). This whole issue of putting God first really relates to the number one question in life: Who or what am I going to live for? God says, If you want me to help you overcome your fear and worry, live for me. Make me number one in your life, and I will bring everything into focus. I will supply all your needs, according to my glorious riches (Philippians 4:19). But if you put other things first, you ll be prone to fear and worry, because your vision will be distorted. You won t have a clear picture of who I am and how much I care for you. Where do you need to rearrange your priorities so God will have first place in every area of your life?
The fourth and final perspective we ll consider for overcoming fear and worry is this: Life is meant to be lived on day at a time. Verse 34: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Jesus is saying, Live one day at a time. How wise; how practical. Don t carry an open umbrella around all the time just because it might rain. You only need to open the umbrella when it actually starts raining. Live in the now. This doesn t mean we shouldn t plan for tomorrow. The book of Proverbs has much to say about the wisdom of planning for the future. But there s a huge difference between responsible planning, and worry about the future. You can plan for the future, but you can only ever live today. By God s design, life works best when we take it one day at a time. He wants us to trust him moment by moment. If I m afraid of the future if I get so caught up in what ifs I will miss out on experiencing and enjoying God s goodness and strength today, like we talked about earlier. When I worry, I become oblivious to God s presence and blessings in my life right now. In the Old Testament, God sent bread from heaven called manna down on his people. If you know the story, what schedule did God have for giving them the manna? Was it annually? Monthly? Weekly? No. It was daily. He gave them their bread one day at a time. God didn t want them to stockpile any for the future because he wanted to teach them to trust him one day at a time. He wanted them to realize and experience that he would be faithful to take care of them each and every day. And what does Jesus teach us to pray in The Lord s Prayer? Give us this day our daily bread. Not our weekly bread. Not our monthly bread. Not our bread for the next two, five or ten years. God will give you strength and power and provision for tomorrow s needs and problems when? When tomorrow becomes today. As C.S. Lewis writes, The future is something everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes and hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. So this morning, we ve seen from Jesus teaching in Matthew 6 that overcoming fear is all about perspective. First, recognize that fear accomplishes nothing. Second, focus on God s amazing love. Third, God must have first place in everything. Fourth, life is meant to be lived one day at a time. To conclude the message, I d like to share a final takeaway, and at this time, I d like to ask the ushers to pass out the little orange cards, which I ll explain in a moment (everyone, please take one as they go around). And just a reminder, I ve already suggested that for focusing on God s amazing love, it s important to look to the cross, and a great way to do so is to recite the Bible verse Romans 8:32 over and over again in your mind, until it really sinks in: He who did not spare his own Son for us will he not also graciously give us all things? I also suggested the breath prayer God, reveal your love to me (see Eph. 3:17-19). Over the years, I ve learned that so much of the Christian life comes down to reciting truth like this again and again or praying prayers like this again and again until they penetrate your mind and heart, and real change starts to happen in your life. But in addition to these suggestions, the first takeaway I d like to invite you to try is another exercise in putting scriptural truth into practice. Printed on the orange card is Philippians 4:6-7, which gives us explicit instructions about how we are to handle anxiety, fear, and worry: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is a great passage. Many of you are familiar with it. But do you apply it in your everyday life? Because that s what it s there for. Passages like this aren t in the Bible just so you can have another piece of Bible information to store somewhere in the recesses of your brain. Passages like this are there to be put into practice, to be experienced, to be lived. Amen? And that s what we re going to do this week. We re going to practice Philippians 4:6-7: Carry the card with you, and pull it out every time you need to. Memorize the passage if you can. Do not be anxious about anything So anytime you start to feel anxious about anything anything at all that s your cue to put this passage into practice. But in every situation, by prayer and petition present your requests to God. Pray about whatever it is that is causing you to feel afraid or anxious. Whatever it is, bring it to God in prayer in every situation. And when you pray, you re going to do so with thanksgiving as the passage says. Oh, please don t forget that little clause. Yes, bring your concerns and requests to God, but as you do, interject lots of thanksgivings remembrances of God s blessings and goodness in your life. Because it is when we get intentional about remembering and reciting God s great track record of faithfulness, that we realize that we can relax and entrust whatever it is that s worrying us into his capable hands. So in any and every circumstance that could cause you to be afraid or anxious, you pray about it, with thanksgiving, and then, you wait on God to do his part of the deal, which is the promise of this passage: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Bringing the peace is God s job, and it contingent on you doing your job praying your concerns and requests to God with thanksgiving. God s promise is that when we put this passage into practice, he will deliver us from anxiety, and give us his peace which passes all understanding. What that means is God s peace will guard your heart and mind even before the situation that was making you anxious is resolved. How wonderful is that? If we put this passage into practice, God s promising us peace in the midst of the storm, even. And that peace which passes all understanding, because when I m facing the storms of life, I don t tend to be very peaceful about it, do you? But this is what God promises if we consistently practice Philippians 4:6-7.
What I want to know by a show of hands is who s in? Who will commit right now, before God, to take this card and use it to put this verse into practice in the week ahead, anytime you re inclined to feel anxious, worried, stressed or afraid? I ll tell you, if you do, you ll probably find yourself praying a whole lot more than usual. And friends, that s a really, really good thing. We re made and redeemed to share our whole life with God and I m convinced that something as simple as putting a passage like this into consistent practice can be a game-changer for many of you. Close in prayer praying Philippians 4:6-7 for the Cornerstone Centre project (all standing).