INTRODUCTION
Today is the first Sunday of 2025. Happy New Year!
I thought that at the start of the year I would review a couple of the most basic aspects of Christian life. I have given the title of today’s talk, ‘A storm called fear.’ It’s about fear, worry and anxiety. Next Sunday, we’re going to look at ‘Abiding in Jesus.’
You might say, ‘Simon, we’ve heard lots of talks on these things!’ Maybe you have. But piano teachers keep on asking their students, ‘Have you practised?’ Dentists keep on asking their patients, ‘Are you flossing?’ I think it’s OK for me to come back to really important themes – and these themes ARE really important!
TALK
Fear, worry and anxiety are issues which Christians have to deal with all the time. Fear is more the result of a definite danger. Anxiety and worry are more about uncertainty. But all three are kinds of distress.
People sometimes say that the command ‘Do not fear’ comes 365 times in the Bible. I don’t think that’s correct. But the command ‘Do not fear’ or similar commands certainly comes 140 or 150 times. In the Bible, God’s people often faced fear. It’s the same today. My guess is that for most of us here, there’s something which is causing fear, anxiety or worry. We need to know how to deal with them.
I’m going to start with a verse from Psalm 64. David wrote this:
‘Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;
preserve my life from dread of the enemy’ [Psalm 64:1].
We might expect David to write, ‘Preserve my life from the enemy’. But instead, he writes, ‘Preserve my life from DREAD of the enemy.’ The Hebrew word that’s translated ‘dread’ means an overwhelming sense of fear that can paralyze a person. It’s as if David is saying that it isn’t the enemy which he’s worried about. It’s the dread, the debilitating fear, that he’s worried about. He has to get over that fear before he can go out to face the enemy.
That sets the scene for today’s talk. There are many threats arounds us; many things we may be afraid of. But our subject today isn’t how to deal with the threats. Our subject today is how to deal with the fear that comes from the threats.
Different people face different threats. Here’s an account of a visit to South Africa by a Norwegian journalist, Kåre Melhus, in the time of Apartheid.
‘The year is 1988 and I find myself in a private home in Cape Town. I have been invited to a group of Christians who are meeting for a foot-washing ceremony where the main purpose is to minister to each other. The group is made up of people from various congregations in the Cape Town area to take care of the families of people imprisoned for anti-apartheid activities. The South African police are frequently arresting male breadwinning members of black families, and the courts are following up with harsh sentences. Part of the punishment is that no one is allowed to help the families left behind as the prison gates slam shut behind husbands and fathers. Such assistance is in itself a crime. So, I am meeting with criminals and enemies of the state, as far as the South African authorities are concerned. The atmosphere is filled with a mixture of exhaustion, fear, bravery, concern, love and trust in God. The handful of group members report to the others on their activities of the past week. The group focuses especially on the needs of a woman with four children, whose husband has been in jail for several months without a trial. He is accused of firebombing a filling station. The group does not think he did this ... [skipping a bit] … The group goes into earnest prayer for each other and for the families of the prisoners. Hands are laid on heads and shoulders, shaking in silent crying. They pray for a long time’ [Note 1].
The people Kåre Melhus met in Cape Town faced real threats. They had reason to be afraid. But SHOULD they have been afraid? The Bible says no.
Why not? I’m going to answer this in three parts. Why we SHOULD NOT be afraid, why we NEED NOT be afraid and why we MUST NOT be afraid. Then we’ll look at one thing we MUST do. At the end, I’m going to zoom out and try to see a bigger picture.
A. WHY WE SHOULD NOT BE AFRAID
Fear and worry are unhelpful and actually harmful. We should steer as far away from them as possible!
A1. FEAR AND WORRY DON’T HELP
Jesus once asked, ‘Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?’ [Luke 12:25, NIV]. There’s an old saying, ‘Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.’
A2. FEAR AND WORRY CAUSE PHYSICAL ILLNESS [slide].
Proverbs 12:25 says, ‘Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down.’ In extreme cases, fear and worry deteriorate into serious mental health problems such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Generalized Anxiety Disorder. But fear and worry don’t just cause problems with our mental health. They affect our physical health too [slide].
A3. FEAR AND WORRY ROB US OF TIME
Picture yourself leaving a supermarket, going to your car, carrying ten large bags of shopping. You probably can’t do it. You can manage three or four, but ten is too many.
Jesus once told his disciples: ‘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.’ Then he asked, ‘Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?’ [Matthew 6:25].
The point is that there are more important things in life than food and clothing. There’s only so much we can think about. If we spend a lot of time worrying about food and clothing, something else will take a hit. The simple reality is that the typical 21st century westerner spends a LOT of time thinking about food and clothing. There’s a price to pay. If you spend hours planning and then worrying about the soufflé you’re cooking for your dinner guests then you won’t think about more important things. Time spent worrying about relatively minor things robs us of time for thinking about more important things.
A4. FEAR OFTEN LEADS TO BAD DECISIONS
Moses sent spies into Canaan. They came back and told the people, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are’ [Numbers 13:31]. The spies and the people of Israel left God out of the picture. They were afraid and as a result, didn’t go into the promised land. The chief priests in Jerusalem called on Pilate to crucify Jesus. They were afraid of what they believed would happen if Jesus continued to do amazing miracles like raising Lazarus. In both cases, fear led to bad decisions.
So, fear and worry don’t help. They cause ill health. They rob us of time. They lead to bad decisions. It’s clear that WE SHOULD NOT BE AFRAID. But how can we not be afraid?! Let’s see!
B. WHY WE NEED NOT BE AFRAID
B1. GOD’S PROMISES GIVE US REASON NOT TO FEAR
In the Bible, God has given us some wonderful promises which help us to overcome our fears. One of the loveliest is Isaiah 41:10.
‘Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.’
God starts, ‘Fear not!’ God would have told the Christians in Cape Town the same thing. ‘Fear not!’ God tells us the same thing.
Does this verse help? It certainly should! If you feel afraid, get out your Bible and read it again. Reflect on what God is saying. ‘I am with you ... I am your God ... I will strengthen you … I will help you ... I will uphold you.’ God could hardly be more emphatic. If all those things are true (and they are!) why should we fear?! We need to hold on to God's promises!
B2. GOD’S CHARACTER GIVES US REASON NOT TO FEAR
Let’s have another story. American George Vanderbilt inherited a huge fortune from his parents. In about 1888 he decided to build a house. It’s believed to be the largest domestic dwelling ever constructed in the United States. Here’s a picture [slide].
Christianity Today did an article on something that happened at the house. A young woman named Bessie Smith had started working there serving food and drinks. But on her first day on the job, she walked into the grand banquet hall and dropped the tray of monogrammed china she was carrying. George Vanderbilt got up, went over to her, got down on his hands and knees and helped her pick up the shards. Then he told her, ‘Come see me in the morning.’
What would George Vanderbilt say to her the following day? Bessie Smith had reason to be afraid. As it turned out, the following day, George Vanderbilt switched Bessie Smith’s job to chambermaid so she wouldn’t have to carry such heavy dishes.
This story shows us something of George Vanderbilt’s character. He was gracious. He wasn’t going to shout and yell. That is even more true of God. God is richer than George Vanderbilt and even more gracious. He won’t shout and yell at us. He’s our Good Shepherd, our rock, our fortress, our shield. He will never leave or forsake us. He loves us so much that he gave his life for us. Without any doubt, he cares for us. It means that we can cast our anxiety on him [1 Peter 5:7].
So, we see that GOD’S PROMISES and GOD’S CHARACTER tell us that WE NEED NOT BE AFRAID.
C. WHY WE MUST NOT BE AFRAID
The ancient Israelites were afraid to enter Canaan. They forgot that God would help them. The Scottish evangelist Oswald Chambers said, ‘All worry is caused by calculating without God.’ That makes complete sense. When we put God IN the picture, we realize that we don’t need to worry. Worrying means that we have left God out of the picture – and that dishonours God. We must not give in to fear because FEAR DISHONOURS GOD.
We've seen that we SHOULD not be afraid. We NEED not be afraid. And we MUST NOT be afraid. But practically-speaking, what do we need to do? We’ve looked at two things already. We should remember God’s promises and we remember God’s character. But the Bible gives us something else to do...
D. WE SHOULD PRAY
Paul wrote: ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything BY PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION WITH THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known to God’ [Philippians 4:6].
When we are anxious or afraid, we should pray.
Do you remember what the people in Cape Town did? They prayed. That’s exactly the right response. Someone said, ‘If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.’
If you hear that your company will be restructuring, you may be worried about your job. You should pray. If your doctor wants to see you, you may be worried that he’s found something serious. You should pray. If your child gets into bad company, you may be worried that it will influence him. You should pray. AND ASK SOMEONE TO PRAY WITH YOU!
But Paul also says, pray with thanksgiving. So, include some thanking in your prayer! If you’re worried that you won’t be able to pay the mortgage this month, pray, but also thank God for your home. If your doctor tells you that you have cancer, pray, but also thank God for his goodness to you over many years.
There’s one last thing I want to mention.
E. THE BIGGER PICTURE
US overcoming OUR fear is part of a bigger picture.
I have two things in mind.
David prayed:
‘Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;
preserve my life from dread of the enemy’ [Psalm 64:1].
David had to get over his fear. But the bigger picture is that he still had to deal with his enemy. We have to do the same. For example, we may have to deal with the fear of cancer. But then we have to deal with the cancer itself.
The other way in which our fear is part of a bigger picture is that MANY Christians have reason to be afraid. Often, other people have much more reason to be afraid than we do. At the top of the scale are Christians in North Korea. Open Doors describes the situation for Christians in North Korea as follows:
‘Being discovered to be a Christian in North Korea is effectively a death sentence. Either believers will be deported to labour camps as political criminals – where they face a life of hard labour which few survive – or they are killed on the spot.’
That must be terrifying. WE may be afraid. But think of THEM! But let’s move things closer to home. I’m certain that some people in our church this morning are battling fears and worries. We shouldn’t only think about how WE help OURSELVES. We should also think about how we can help OTHER PEOPLE. If we can help someone thousands of miles away, let's do that. If we can help someone three metres away, let's do that. Let’s encourage people who are facing fears and worries, perhaps by reminding them of a verse such as Isaiah 41:10. Let’s pray for them, that God would help them to overcome their fears. And let’s help them, as we can, to be free from the threats and dangers that give rise to fear.
CONCLUDING PRAYER
Lord Jesus, all of us have to deal with fear. Thank you for your Word that guides us and your Holy Spirit who comforts us. As we face our fears, help us to trust in your promises and remember your character. Help us to faithfully come to you in prayer. And help us to find ways to escape from situations that are full of fear. We ask this in your name, Amen.
TALK GIVEN AT ROSEBERY PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, BOURNEMOUTH, UK, 5TH JANUARY 2025, 10.30 A.M. SERVICE
