ARE YOU AFRAID?

by Reid Tait

Midland SDA Church  June 6, 2009

Opening Song: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” p. 12

Scripture Revelation 1:17, 18

Sermon Title: “Are You Afraid?”

Closing Song “Trust and Obey” p. 590

1.0 Ardith and I want to thank each of you for your prayers, cards, phone calls and e mail during this time of the lost of Ardith’s sister to cancer complications. She is at peace awaiting the resurrection. She will be missed.

2.0 Let us pray

3.0 ARE YOU AFRAID? Should we as Christians be afraid?

3.1 Perhaps the most famous fear quote of all time is given by FDR, in his First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933 and I quote “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

3.2 Edgar Wallace wrote in The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916) “Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake.”

3.3 The late Luciano Pavarotti is quoted as saying “Am I afraid of high notes? Of course I am afraid. What sane man is not?”

4.0 In His book, The Conquest of Fear, Basil King writes that during most of his lifetime he has been a prey of fear. And he feels that he is expressing the experience of most people. He says he can’t remember a time when dread of one kind or another was not in the air. In his childhood he was afraid to go to bed in the dark. Later on he was afraid to go to school. Still later in life, when he would wake up in the morning, he was afraid of the amount of work that had to be done that day.

5.0 Some kind of fear, he says, dogs every one of us. A mother is afraid for her children, a father is afraid for his business, and many of us are afraid for our job. Mr. King declares that there is not a home, an office, a school, or a church in which some hangdog apprehension is not eating at the hearts of the people who go in and out. He thinks that not all of the misery wrought by sin and sickness in individual lives would equal that which we bring on ourselves through fear. We are not sick all the time, and we are not engaging in acts of outright sin all the time,; but most of us, he says, are always afraid—afraid of something, afraid of somebody.

6.0 Why should we be afraid? Why should you and I be afraid of anything or anybody? Really, no believer in the Lord Jesus has any reason to fear anything or anyone on earth—has he? The story is told of a Christian woman found this text to be a great blessing to her—Psalm 56:3 “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.” When we are afraid we should go to God in prayer. There is no doubt about that. When we are afraid, we should trust in God and find in Him our comfort and peace. But this woman became quite puffed up with spiritual pride. She thought she had found something that others did not have. So she was quite deflated when one day she read that D. L. Moody had said that this verse--“Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.”—is going to heaven by second class, but the verse, “I will trust, and not be afraid” (Isaiah 12:2) is going to heaven by first class.

7.0 We have a command of Jesus Himself against fear. Turn to John 14:1-3. If we really trust in God and trust in Jesus, we will not fear. Verse 2 The future life is a reality. When we finish here, we are ready to go on there. Let us not worry about the shortness of life here, because it will be endless in its glory and interest and reality to the life to come. Verse 3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, “I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” Our Savior is coming again. He has promised to come. He will come. It is definite, certain, sure, positive. He has not forgotten this world or left it alone in its sin. He will come back and bring to the end the sorrow and war and trouble of this earth, so that eventually God’s plan for this world will be carried out and it will be the glorious, happy home of an immortal race. Do not worry about this. No matter how dark things become in your personal life, or in the world in general, remember the text; I will trust, and not be afraid,” Isaiah 12:2

8.0 The great Scotch preacher, John M’Neill, tells of an experience in his boyhood. He had been in town and was late getting started to tramp the six or seven miles back to his home. It was a very dark night, and the road, which led through a lonely glen and the mountains, had a bad name. In the very densest of darkness, in the most lonely spot, and when his heart was beating so furiously that he could hear it pounding in his ears, suddenly there rang out a great, strong, cheery voice—“Is that you, Jonny?”

9.0 “It was my father,” he says, “the bravest, strongest man I ever knew.” And then he adds: “Many a time since, when things were getting very black and gloomy about me, I have heard a voice greater than that of my earthly father cry: “Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God.” Isaiah 41:10.”

10.0 Always remember our heavenly Father knows us well. He created us and knows our nature. He knows how prone we are to fear. “He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” Psalm 103:14

11.0 Over and over in the Bible He says; “Be not afraid, Do not fear.” And especially this: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Genesis 15:1

12.0 “Fear not,” Joseph said to his brethren. (Genesis 50:19.) “Fear not,” Moses said to the people. (Exodus 20:20) “Fear not,” God said to Joshua, to Israel and to the judges time and time again. “Fear not,” Samuel said to the people (1 Samuel 12:20); and Jonathan, who loved David as his own soul, said to him, “Fear not.” (1 Samuel 23:17). “Fear not,” Elijah said to the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:13), and Elisha to his servant (2 Kings 6:16).

13.0 When the whole nation of Israel was trembling like the leaves of the forest before a mighty invading army, Jahaziel, the prophet, said under the inspiration of the Lord: “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.” 2 Chronicles 20:15. A message like that is a good everyday message for us.

14.0 Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord says; “Say to those who are fearful hearts, Be strong, do not Fear; (Isaiah 35:4, “So do not fear, for I am with you, do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (NIV Isaiah 41:10).

15.0 H. M. S. Richards tell the story of his youngest son when he was about five years old. One night when it was exceedingly dark, he and his son took a walk up into the mountain in back of their home. The trail went among live oak trees and there wasn’t a ray of light. As they started out his son talked constantly, but as the trail got darker and steeper, he talked less. Finally, taking his dad’s hand and walking as close to me as he could get, he said in almost a whisper, “Daddy, we’re not afraid, are we?” No, WE are not, but he was. Yet the touch of my hand gave him courage and faith. He would go anywhere I would go. His fear and his confidence were a sermon to me. They brought back to my mind these words of Scripture; “For I the Lord thy God will hold they right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee.” Isaiah 41:13. “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.” Isaiah 43:1 Just as I loved my little son and assuaged his fears, so God loves me and assuages mine.”

16.0 John Wesley thought he was a true Christian until one day the ship was caught in a terrible storm over the Atlantic and fear came unto his heart. The only people on board who were not terror-stricken, he noticed, were a little group of Moravian missionaries. When the storm was over he asked one of them, “Were you not afraid?”

17.0 “Afraid? Why should I be afraid? I know Christ.” Then, looking at Wesley, with disconcerting frankness he asked, “Do you know Christ?” We need to ask ourselves the same question—“Do we know Christ? Are we real Christians?

18.0 It took this trial in Wesley’s life for him to realize that he did not truly know Him, but thank God that it was not long until he did as few men in modern times have known Him.

19.0 Peter’s story found in Matthew 14:26-31 illustrates the problem with the modern Christian, when we take our eyes off of Jesus we begin to sink in the storms of life. We try to keep one eye on Christ and the other on our problems. On God and His care, but also at the troubles around us, which leaves us full of fear. Like Peter we hear the wind and we see the waves, but we cannot see Christ who is reaching out to us. In fact, Jesus is so close to us that he is carrying us. We forget the single set of footsteps in the sand are the Savior’s and not ours. The Savior’s life is a gift that we cannot pay. At the tomb of the resurrection the angel said to the women: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here He is risen.” Matthew 28:5, 6

20.0 Over and over, Jesus told His disciples not to fear. At the miraculous draught of fishes He said to the apostles Peter, “Fear not” (Luke 5:19); and to Jairus, who had just heard that his daughter was dead, “Fear not: believe only.” Luke 8:50. And how wonderful are His words to us “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,” Luke 12:32.

21.0 Someone has said that “Fear not” is the watermark of the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation. “Fear not,” the angel said to the apostle Paul. (Acts 27:24.) And Paul wrote to Timothy: “God has not given us a spirit of fear” 2 Timothy 1:7. In the last book of the Bible, Christ said to lonely John on Patmos: “Do not be afraid; ‘I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen, And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.’” Why do we fear when we have such a promise? Brothers and sisters do not be afraid, everything is possible for God.

22.0 How do we get rid of fear that besets us every day? Faith in a living God and a living Savior is the antidote for fear. John 11:40 says “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God.”

23.0 In Bunyan’s immortal allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress, he takes Christian to Doubting Castle, kept by Giant Despair and his wife Diffidence. Finally he was delivered and went out from his dungeon into the light; and so must we. Faith finds God. Faith sees Him in the darkness as in the day. Faith will open the doors as well as the windows of every prison of the soul.

24.0 When the settlers in British Columbia abandoned Fort Alcan and were permitted to strip it of lumber, electrical equipment, and plumbing, they made an amazing discovery. In dismantling the jail they found that strong locks were attached to the heavy doors, and two-inch steel bars covered the windows, but the walls of the prison were made of only patented wallboard, clay, and paper, painted to resemble iron. A good strong heave against them by a strong man would have burst them out. Nobody had ever tried it, because nobody thought it possible. Many of us Christians are prisoners of our own fears—fears which prove to be nothing when pushed against with the hand of faith. The Bible says that those who are fearful are those of little faith. (Matthew 8:26) Fearfulness and unbelief go together. But it is our privilege to –Trust and obey, For there’s no other way To be happy in Jesus, But to trust and obey.

25.0 God said, Fear Not—Christ said Fear Not. Put on the whole armor of God, fight the battle with unwavering faith and do not fear for God is for us. Cast away all fear and Trust and Obay.

26.0 Before we sing our closing song—Brenda Khalil would like to give her testimony.