MY HOPE IS IN YOU: The Heart Broken by Fear 5-29-22

MY HOPE IS IN YOU: The Heart Broken by Fear 5-29-22

INTRODUCTION

I have never been one to tempt fate.  I have always been an old soul.  I have always been more afraid than excited.  I was never a daredevil.  I had friends that loved danger more than life itself.  I had friends who used to jump off cliffs to ride small trees to the ground.  I had friends who jumped off bridges and cliffs into rivers and streams.  I had friends who could not go fast enough or high enough.  I found other ways to spend my time.  I was not into danger or the adrenaline rush of fear.  I saw safe choices and projectable risks.  I was a little boring to be honest with you.  I did more crazy things as a youth minister than I have ever done outside of ministry.  I’ll save those stories for later.

My son on the other hand.  Caleb likes motorcycles, risking it all, not playing it safe.  I like to learn how to do things “the right way.”  Paula and Caleb love the thrill of doing things they have never done before.  One of the last summers that Caleb spent with my parents in Tennessee when he was in his early teens I got a phone call from my mom.  She was scared and angry and overwhelmed.  Caleb had gone with a bunch of kids and swam across one the large lakes down from my parents house.  Caleb knew no fear; but Nan certainly did.  My mom cannot swim and the idea of her grandson swimming across that water scared her to death.

Caleb called me one day from our house when he was in his early 20’s.  You could hear the terror in his voice.  He was obviously shaken.  I ran home from the church to find my son sitting on our family room couch with a gun sitting on the coffee table.  I knew he had the gun.  The smell of gunpowder told me I didn’t know the story.  When he could finally talk, he told me about how the gun he just loaded and was sitting on the coffee table discharged.  It was a Judge 45 long colt with special self-protection rounds that have discs and pellets and all sorts of other strange projectiles.  As he told the story I looked where he said the bullet went, and sure enough there were several holes in the window trim of my east facing family room window.  The boy with no fear knows fear.

Psalm 39 is another psalm of David.  Scholars believe this psalm was written in response to his son, Absalom’s rebellion.  This time, however, David feels that his life is in such jeopardy that his remaining days may be few. 

“I said, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth while in the presence of the wicked.” So I remained utterly silent, not even saying anything good. But my anguish increased; my heart grew hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be. “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools. I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this. Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand. When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin, you consume their wealth like a moth— surely everyone is but a breath. “Hear my prayer, Lord, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. I dwell with you as a foreigner, a stranger, as all my ancestors were. Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again before I depart and am no more.””

                            Psalms 39:1-13 NIV

I.  THE POWER OF FEAR

On Inauguration Day, March 4, 1933, Washington was cold and overcast.

At the Capitol, Franklin Delano Roosevelt braced himself on his son James’s arm as he made his slow way to the rostrum to take the oath of office. Then, as the crowd grew quiet, he opened his inaugural address.

The new president offered hope to a desperate people: “This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper.”  Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address includes the famous line— “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

“I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

It’s generally believed that Roosevelt’s political adviser Louis Howe added these words to the speech. But Howe’s source is a mystery. Presidential adviser Raymond Moley claimed Howe saw the line in a 1933 department store advertisement. But a 1931 newspaper article quotes U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Julius Barnes as saying, “In a condition of this kind, the thing to be feared most is fear itself.” FDR speechwriter Samuel Rosenman credited Henry David Thoreau, who once wrote: “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.”   

“I said, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth while in the presence of the wicked.” So I remained utterly silent, not even saying anything good. But my anguish increased;”

                            Psalms 39:1-2 NIV

A.  His declarations

                            1.  “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin;”

“Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.”

                            James 3:5 NIV

“The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”

                            James 3:6 NIV

                            2.  “I will put a muzzle on my mouth while in the presence of the wicked.”

The original does not so much mean a bridle to check the tongue, as a muzzle to stop it altogether. David was not quite so wise as our translation would make him; if he had resolved to be very guarded in his speech, it would have been altogether commendable; but when he went so far as to condemn himself to entire silence, "even from good," there must have been at least a little sullenness in his soul. In trying to avoid one fault, he fell into another.

To use the tongue against God is a sin of commission, but not to use it at all involves an evident sin of omission. Commendable virtues may be followed so eagerly that we may fall into vices.

                            The Treasury of David, C.H. Spurgeon on Psalm 39

              B.  His emotions

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”           

                            Edmund Burke

“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

                            James 4:17 NIV

II.  THE REALITY OF DEATH

‘I knew a man once who said, “Death smiles at us all.  All a man can do is smile back.”’

              Maximus Decimus Meridius, Gladiator

“Even at our birth, death does but stand aside a little.  And every day he looks towards us and mouses somewhat to himself whether that day or the next he will draw nigh.”

                            English playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt

“It is possible to provide security against other ills, but as far as death is concerned, we men live in a city without walls.”

                            Epicurus

“Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.”

                            Job 14:1 NIV

“My heart grew hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.”

                            Psalms 39:3-5 NIV

“Time is not marching on—it is running out!”

                            Anonymous

              A.  “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days;”

“Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.”

                            Psalms 90:10 NIV ( the only psalm attributed to Moses)

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

                            Psalms 90:12 NIV

              B.  “You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you.”

              C.  “Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.”

We poor human creatures are constantly being frustrated by limitations imposed upon us from without and within. The days of the years of our lives are few, and swifter than a weaver’s shuttle. Life is a short and fevered rehearsal for a concert we cannot stay to give. Just when we appear to have attained some proficiency we are forced to lay our instruments down.

                            A. W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy

III.  THE HOPE OF THE MORTAL

 “So widespread is fear of death that it is the subject of an academic discipline--the study of death anxiety--producing a substantial amount of literature in the last four decades. Researchers have divided it into various types of fears: fear of pain, fear of the unknown, fear of non-existence and fear of eternal punishment . . .

Religious faith is no guarantor of peace at the end of life. Nitza Rosario, a chaplain with Rainbow Hospice in Park Ridge, recalled a patient who was a pious woman, but in facing death was terrified.

"She was a pillar of her church, but in talking to her, I saw this look of fear in her eyes," Rosario said. "She said, `There are so many religions; how do you know which is the right one?'"

Faith also can mask fear. One study found that some people who say they believe in an afterlife may actually dread there is none. When college students were hypnotized and asked to rate their fears, they expressed greater fear of non-existence than when they were awake.”

                           “Understanding Fear of Death,” Chicago Tribune article by By Barbara Brotman and                                                 Tribune staff reporter on Nov 20, 2006 at 12:00 am

“It’s coming whether you like it or not.  You just have to accept it.”

                            Anonymous

“This life really is all there is.”

                            Sentiment of some believers

“Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be. “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools. I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this. Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand. When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin, you consume their wealth like a moth— surely everyone is but a breath.”

                            Psalms 39:6-11 NIV

              A.  The heart bound by time

In the movie Pearl Harbor, American pilot Rafe McCauley travels to England to fly with the Royal Air Force in defense of the embattled island being assaulted by the German aerial blitzkrieg.  Upon arriving at the air base, Rafe sees planes that have been shot to pieces and tells his commander that he needs to get in a plane and get in the air right away.  The shocked commander asks, “Are all Yanks as anxious as you get themselves killed, Pilot Officer?”  McCauley responds, “Not anxious to die, sir.  Just anxious to matter.”

              B.  The heart freed by grace

“My hope is in you.”

                            Psalm 39:7b NIV

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?””

                            John 11:25-26 NIV

“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

                            1 Corinthians 15:54-57 NIV

IV.  THE CHALLENGE

“Hear my prayer, Lord, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. I dwell with you as a foreigner, a stranger, as all my ancestors were. Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again before I depart and am no more.”

                            Psalms 39:12-13 NIV

“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

                            James 4:13-17 NIV

“This is a challenge that is not governed by the length of our days, but by the depth of our commitment.  Only when we are more concerned with living than we are with dying will we be able to turn live meaningful, victorious, and purposeful lives.”

                            Bill Crowder, My Hope is in You, p. 81.

CONCLUSION

The power of fear, the reality of death, the hope of the mortal, the challenge

CHALLENGE

What will you do with what you have just heard?  How will you respond to the Holy Spirit working within you?  The Challenge is intended to give us an opportunity to contemplate what God is calling us to do in our lives.  Consider these questions and write down your answers. 

              1.  What is your greatest fear?

              2.  How do you feel about your death?

              3.  Does your faith “mask” fear or overcome it?

              4.  Where have you put your hope?  What do you trust?

              5.  Are you more concerned about living or dying?

INVITATION

It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word.  You may want to follow Jesus.  You may want to proclaim your faith.  You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things).  Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church.  If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now.  If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.