Fear & Anxiety
Last week I handled the news and notes, and afterward someone came up to tell me I had seemed nervous and anxious speaking in front of everyone.
And here I am this morning, about to talk about fear and anxiety. Isn’t that nice.
Be not afraid. Fear not. Simple words. Simply spoken, simply given, simple to understand when we read them in God’s word.
In my experience, though, fear is not simple. Not at all.
Do you think God understands that? Of course He does. Of course He does. Why else would we have an emotion this visceral? Why is it there at all?
We gather to hear the truth, even when that truth is uncomfortable. I hope every one of you is prepared for that — not just today, but every Sunday, and every time you sit down to study God’s word, hopefully in a growth group. To hear the truth. To be open to rebuke. To be ready to understand and to probe the depths of Scripture.
Father, only You can take away the things that burden us so. We thank You for Your word. Thank You for being here with me and for affording this opportunity. Help my heart not to be hard, and help me speak with clarity and coherence — that this would be Your word and not mine. Amen.
An Industry Built on Fear
The world is possessed by fear. Its propagation and consumption is an industry. We all know this — there is a seriously large industry built around people’s fearful nature.
Remember that in Scripture we are likened to that particularly glorious animal, the sheep. Wonderful, fearful, wandering sheep. But we know our Master’s voice, and we know that when He calls and commands, we ought to go.
Do you hear His voice when He calls you?
The word fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.
It is easy to take that definition straight into reasonable fear. If you are hiking and a cougar steps onto the trail, you should be afraid. It is about to maul you. Stay away from it. That is rational. It makes sense.
Then there are phobias — specific, definable, mostly tangible things people are afraid of, and all people are predisposed to some. Spiders. Heights. Sickness. Clowns. Clowns came up constantly while I was studying for this. People are afraid of clowns. I do not know why.
And if you have a phobia and suspect it is irrational — yes, it is. Irrational fears are the low-hanging fruit of the worry world.
A friend of mine, who I hope is listening to this, is driving down to Texas for school right now, and I promised I would bring up his particular fear because it is genuinely odd. He estimates he loses a couple of minutes every day to hypothetical thought about the manipulation, distortion, and damage of his fingernails and toenails. He worries about pulling on socks and tearing a nail off. I said I would mention it. So hello, my friend.
The other night before bed I asked my three oldest boys what their first fears were. I will not share the more sensitive answers, but I got the typical ones. Clowns. Scary pictures — and I am still unsure where they are picking that up, because we do not watch horror in our house. Sharp things, like needles.
Mine includes clowns. My wife has an irrational fear of osteoporosis, which I cannot account for — and clowns as well. When I was little I had a fuzzy-framed picture of a clown hanging in my room. That is probably where mine comes from. I can still see it in my mind’s eye. Maybe it stared at me.
Fear Has a Proper Place — and an Improper One
In the back of a study Bible you can look up topics and follow them across Scripture — including fear. I would encourage each of you to do that later today or tonight: open your Bible and read about something that is on your mind.
When you do, you find that fear has a proper place, a proper use — a function for rebuke and even for praise, all concerning the God over existence itself. Read Psalm 22 if you want to see praise and fear together.
But fear also has an improper place. It can be abused and distorted.
Some of you are running through your rational fears right now. Do you fear that someone will get close to you? Do you fear judgment? Do you fear society? Do you fear yourself — knowing your own wants and desires? Do you have some unnameable fear, a general dread about life and the world?
Anxiety. Anxiety. Anxiety.
This past week, did you feel anxiety? Fear? Frustration? Emptiness? Purposelessness? Impatience? Restlessness?
I want to admit to everyone who can hear my voice that I dwelt in my own anxiety over this very sermon and this very topic. It cast a shadow over my nights. It put a dent in my morning today. I ruminated over the exact thing I am doing right now.
This fear stole from me. It took my joy. It lied to me.
That besetting kind of fear is what I want to focus on.
“Have I Not Commanded You?”
Some of you have read or heard that the Bible says “do not fear” 365 times — one for every day. I believe I have said that myself, in a vain attempt to comfort someone with a quip rather than actually going to Scripture about what their situation required.
It does not say it that many times. But “fear not” and “be not afraid” appear 86 times in the Old Testament and 27 times in the New — 113 times in total.
Have you ever heard a parent or grandparent say, if I repeat it, I must mean it?
Open to Joshua 1:9. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Have I not commanded you.
Search that verse online and you will find endless quote images — fluffy cloud photographs, dark backgrounds with a candle, whatever. And what struck me immediately as I looked through them is that nearly all of them leave off the first part of the sentence. They start at “be strong and of good courage.”
One of the first times I ever taught, a friend warned me: do not take it out of context. Do not read only the little parts you already agree with. I am trying not to.
Read the whole chapter up to verse 9 and you find God’s commission to Joshua. Moses has just died. They are about to cross the Jordan. There is real context here — directives for Joshua about what is immediately in front of him.
But even without reading ourselves into that Old Testament narrative, we still find a bold and pointed instruction. And the prevalence of this mandate across Scripture is obvious.
So if you are struggling with fear — do not be afraid. You are in good company. There are giants in the Old and New Testaments who felt it. Not giants like the ones in the accounts of walled cities. I mean scriptural giants. Abraham. Isaac. Jacob. Daniel. Mary. Peter. Paul. They all felt fear. They all experienced that very real, constricting emotion.
But did God not say, I am with you wherever you go? Wherever you go.
Where Are You Meditating?
I am not working through this to explain anyone’s troubles away, or to explain away your emotions. I am trying to frame them — to find perspective for our emotions in God’s word. We are to meditate on God and on His truth.
Think of our tendency to work through occasions, instances, and troubles in life as a spectrum. At one end is worry — constant, overwhelming anxiety about something happening in your life.
What is at the other end of that same meditation spectrum? The ability to understand a situation deeply. Because we have been given power, and love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).
Stop meditating on the wrong things. Let God frame your understanding of the occasions in your life. Let Him set the intentions of your mind and your heart.
1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
In the fullness of trust, we learn to place that trust in God — our good, good Father. Believe the truth about God. Stop thinking wrongly. Learn not to fear. We hope in the Lord, and as we think on and process this understanding, it dispels fear and anxiety.
A right view of God. A right view of God in our relationship with Him.
An Uncomfortable Question
Is it God’s will that you not murder? Is it God’s will that you not lie? That you not steal? That you not covet?
Is it God’s will that you not fear?
Each of those other things is sin. And it is easy for us to talk about them and condemn them in someone else’s life. We see it and think, that is sin, that person is sinning.
Then we get down about the world — worried, fearful, towering in our own understanding — and suddenly it is not sin. I am just having a bad day. I am just down about things I do not understand. It is not sin. I cannot help it.
But who do we think we are? Do we set our own moral compass? Did you choose which things you would examine with a critical eye today, and which ones you would gloss over?
Fear is so common among Christians today that we stop treating it as what it is. Anxiety is sin. Fear is from the enemy, and the doubt it creates ends up directed at God — and that is damnable sin.
And now a warning, and I want to be very clear
I am not speaking about mental dispositions brought about by a disordered physiology — a person who may have genuine medical needs concerning fear and anxiety.
Coming to conclusions about the besetting nature of a person’s broken, fallen condition is something to be stepped through carefully. Carefully. With a friend, a doctor, and a pastor or elder.
I ask that you evaluate yourself. And if this topic incites something in you, then all the more — evaluate yourself, and seek God’s intervention.
Or have we forgotten that our Creator knows every bit of you? Every dark corner of your mind. Every secret fear rooted in the deep places of your heart. He knows, and He provides solace and comfort and promises of redemption and salvation, because He loves.
He knows unlike any earthly friend or family member — because He has been there. He has been afraid and anxious and tempted, sweating blood. He knows what it is to fear.
So do not think your Creator does not understand you.
Isaiah 43
“But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…
“‘Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you… Fear not, for I am with you… everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.'”
Have you read that before? We can be aware of an enormous amount of Scripture. But have you ever sat with it and meditated on it?
Learning not to fear can take a lifetime of study and meditation on God’s word. But it would not be a wasted life. What a worthy pursuit.
Do we linger on His word? Do we stand on it?
Trouble is coming. Do not be swept up in it. We are going to watch the world fall more and more deeply into fear — anxiety as a basic way of existing. God has not promised us a life without trouble.
Philippians 4
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
What we are doing here is not well-wishing. It is not a set of nice intentions to guide your day with. It is actual instruction in righteousness — instruction for your attitude and your actions, as the world witnesses them, because of what has been done for you.
Do you believe the entire gospel? Which parts do you not believe? Which parts were you not okay with this morning?
Is it just the forgiveness part you like? I like that I am forgiven. What about the rest? What about the parts that change who you are — that command your behavior, and even your thoughts? We take every thought captive. Remember: have I not commanded you?
Since God does not owe us a life without fear and anxiety, let every moment from now until the end be a gift born out of infinite grace, in the face of an infinitely just and righteous God. Cast yourself off and hold fast to the promises born in the person of Christ and carried out on the cross.
We forget that we are imputed with grace. But once, in all of Scripture, sin was imputed to an innocent man who died for us. That was God being glorified.
Do you believe in the God of Romans 8:28? “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
Who Decides What Rest You Need?
What are these fears that poke at your heart and jab you in the chest?
Do you want to know a man who can give you rest? Or do you want to decide for yourself what kind of rest you think you need — the kind the world tells you that you need?
I pray I am not speaking here out of the hardness of my own heart, but I would ask you to evaluate yourself. The self-care and self-love agendas and mantras out in the world tell a person they can determine their own rest, alleviate their own fears, cast away their own worries.
You cannot. Look to the One who can provide true care and true rest — the one person who makes promises and keeps them, your Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 27:1: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
It is the most repeated prohibition in the entire Bible. When we focus on our anxieties, we focus on ourselves — and we forget. We forget His goodness. We forget His name. We forget everything because we are caught up in our own troubles.
How can we forget? How can we deny the obvious — that God is sovereign, in control at all times, mighty to save and willing to do so, willing to send His Son to die on a cross for our sake?
And yet we fear and doubt and fret and worry. Wringing our hands the whole time, wondering: what are we going to do?
Do we not already know? We have been given a command.
And what do we say to ourselves in times of trouble, in times of pruning and chastening? What am I going to do?
What is God doing through you in your life? Through your struggle — for your sake, and for the people around you who are watching how you suffer and how you handle it, because you know something they do not?
On Christ the solid rock I stand. Where are you standing? Are you resting on your own knowledge of the world?
Our Savior met people where they were and answered questions no one had to ask — questions they were crying out about. I hear people today in the news and in media screaming for guidance on existential issues they cannot solve, issues that plague an entire planet. Anxious to a fault. People attempting to live their own lives, their own truth, their own way, and bring their own light.
We are far too much in our own heads. So stop it. Be quiet, and listen to God’s word — what He has to say about Himself, and a right understanding of Him, and of us, and of our world, and of where we are going and where we have been.
And if in some moment you are given the grace of an emboldening emotion, praise God for it. Praise Him for that mercy. Because it has been given through commandments and decrees that have no left and right — no “if we feel like it that morning.” Be thankful. There are many who will never feel like it, whether deluded or ill.
I was listening to a preacher work through the subject of thankfulness, and he landed in Romans 1 — where you see a group of people who know God but are not thankful. Their view of Him is twisted, reversed, improper, low. Which in reality means a high view of yourself. Which is idolatry.
Is that where we are sinning all along? Is that where you are?
Do Not Sit Where You Are
The world will give you every kind of advice for handling fear and anxiety. Magazines and books in abundance. Reading plans for you. Meditations for you. Mindfulness for you. An understanding for you and your self-aware inward eye that promises to tell you the truth about your struggle and your fear.
Do not believe it. You have already been told the truth. God says that He is sovereign, that Christ is Lord, and that His Spirit is our help, our comfort, our courage.
Our courage is Christ. Fear not.
If you are sick of anxiety and fear in your life — always looking ahead to the trouble of another day — cast it on the one person who can take it from you: Jesus Christ. Hear the gospel. Turn. Repent. Be baptized. Be redeemed.
And come talk to someone here. Talk to your pastor or an elder. We will make time for you — to talk, to listen. Email, call, whatever it takes. Do not just sit where you are.
We love you. Do you believe that we love you? We want you to have a life focused properly on Christ — a life filled with peacefulness, confidence, assurance, hope, boldness, and joy. I want that for you.
I think I get misinterpreted sometimes when I tell friends, or people I work with and mentor, to stop it. Just stop it. It is not because I dislike what you are doing. It is because my heart is breaking over what you are doing to yourself.
Stop. There is a man who died for you and who loves you. So call out His name. Say, I need help. He has been right there the whole time, waiting for you to reach out to Him.
John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Is it not incredible that your Maker tells you things — and that we can listen and obey, and learn to love the way He has taught us to, and lean on Him?
