Fear Not

WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

- Everyone seems to like a good ghost story…

GHOST STORIES: THE HAUNTED DVD

One day in 2009, a movie studio executive was given a DVD of a new low-budget horror movie to see if he’d be interested in distributing it to theaters. He watched the video at home that night and it reportedly scared him pretty badly. Even scarier, right after the movie ended, he discovered the door to his room was locked from the outside, and he had to call a locksmith to get out. The executive was so convinced the DVD was haunted that he had to get it out of his house. He brought it to the studio the next day in a trash bag. In the end, he did decide to distribute and market the film. This ended up being a good idea. The movie in question was the pretend found-footage ghost story Paranormal Activity. This film was produced for only $15,000 and went on to become very profitable and sparked a series of sequels that have grossed millions of dollars. And the executive who to this day is still convinced that his DVD was haunted was none other than the great Steven Spielberg.

This is the time of year where being scared is more prevalent. Halloween is tomorrow. This is the holiday that some people celebrate to scare themselves or others with ghost stories, witches, zombies, and other scary creatures. People dress up as their favorite characters from movies and comic books but also some dress up in gross horror masks to scare other people.

While being scary one time a year can be rooted in having fun, there are other reasons why people might be scared. We live in a world where actual reality scary things happen. Wars are being waged around the world and rumors of our involvement have been mentioned recently. People are waging war in communities where crime has increased in some of our cities. Political targeting of opposition has been a scary prospect and with the midterm elections coming, many are afraid of what may or may not happen depending on who is elected to different positions in not just Tulsa or even Oklahoma but around the country.

Sickness and disease have made many people fearful, whether it’s the virus we’ve dealt with the last couple of years, other things like monkeypox, polio, measles…

There are other real things that might scare us that have happened recently: Everything from economic turmoil, monkeys attacking residents of a Japanese city, protesters looting, robbing, and burning down businesses, remember when there was the scare about murder hornets migrating to the United States?

What are you afraid of? Maybe your fears right now have more to do with the here and now of your life. Paying your bills so you have heat this winter, buying groceries, a family member who is dealing with a serious sickness or injury, maybe even coming to the end of their life. Helping your children navigate their lives and be able to raise healthy, well-adjusted, balanced kids who can succeed and get good grades so they can go on to be normal adults. Raising your children to love God and find salvation in Jesus. Debt, car troubles, dog bites…we all have things that scare us and make us fear how we will solve these issues.

One of my biggest fears is not being around for my children. To not be here when they are getting married, having children, going on to careers of their own, being a source of wisdom for them to ask questions when they are dealing with the same things as parents and spouses that I have dealt with. To be a source of wisdom for great faith questions when they are struggling to trust God.

It was what made me consider my health recently when I was in the hospital for an infection and why I don’t eat the kinds of foods I used to eat. Why I am working on my health.

We all have fears and sometimes struggle with how to cope with those fears and even struggle with the call from Jesus to not worry about these things.

MATTHEW 6:25-34 – DO NOT BE ANXIOUS (5 SLIDES)

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.