Sermon: "Giving Our Fears to God"

2nd in the "Meeting God in Change" series.
Delivered June 10, 2007 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

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(Video clip from "Stranger than Fiction" played here.)

Well few of us are going to be quite as regimented as that in our lives, but we all like routine. There is certain things that we just write into our lives and we expect those things to be the same pretty much every day and we live within that predictability and enjoy that. For me you know waking up, having hot coffee and newspaper that is sort of important. I like that to happen in the morning. For some people it might be Friday night. Friday night is the time you go out with your friends and if you missed that that interrupts the whole routine and if you go out on Friday night it means that Saturday is the day you sleep in late and maybe we see that sort of predictability in our lives when we go out to a restaurant and we usually order a coke. We very seldom get the root beer or the sprite and there are certain things, certain patterns in our lives.

I like change. I am fairly open to change myself. I like having new experiences. When I go to a new part of the country or a new place in the world one of the first things I do in a restaurant when I get there is look for something that I don't know what it is and that's what I order. So, when I came here it was scrapple. Who knows what it is? I have got to try scrapple. Now, I am a fan of scrapple. That sort of openness to new experiences got really tested in Japan. When I was in language school we went out to a market with our language teachers. We were using our Japanese in the market place and my language teacher pointed to this and if you bring it out; in the market. That is a sea cucumber. It is an animal. It crawls. It is slimy. It's nasty looking. And they said Japanese people eat that. How about you Shumitto-san (Mr. Schmidt). Are you going to try this? So I looked at it and I said "Sure." So they had the man cut it up right there in the market. I took it home and you eat it raw with a broth of soy sauce and vinegar. And I want to commend to you that if you like rubber bands dipped into a delicate soy sauce and vinegar sauce that is what this was. It was not one of my favorites, but I did eat it.

We are on different spots on the continuum of change. Even though I am wide open to new experiences on some levels, on other levels I really struggle. I stayed in Japan for ten years and in ten years I never got use to eating a breakfast that didn't have coffee with it and it's not the caffeine. I don't care if its decaf. There is something comforting about having coffee at breakfast and I need that and every time in Japan that I had to have a breakfast that was just you know soup and fish and rice and stuff like that and no coffee, it really bothered me. It was outside my comfort zone. And every time I got in to a place like that I felt a little bit deprived, a little bit confused. It didn't fit right and that's what happens when we get into certain kinds of change. When we get into unusual circumstances, we come to a point where we are uncomfortable, we are confused and in many cases we start to become fearful and that's what we are talking about today.

Now again I said just a few minutes ago, we are on different spots on this continuum of change. I would like to bring up a little list here of people at different spots in this changed continuum. There is change adaptation categories. The first ones are the innovators. About 10% of us in here are people when they see a new thing coming you've got to be one of the first people to try it. You are one of those people who are going to be lined up on June 29th to get an iPhone. That is just the way you are. You don't mind spending a little bit more for it. You are the person who would love to go to California and buy an electric car just to try it out, just to prove the technology.

Change Adoption Categories:

• Innovators 10%
• Responders 15%
• Adapters 25%
• Joiners 25%
• Resisters 15%
• Laggards 10%

Now, then the people behind that are the responders. There is 15% behind there. They are the innovators who don't have the budget for it. They can't take the same risks. I am kind of at the low end of responders and around adapters. You know, I like it to be proven a little bit before I risk my money on it if it's technology and then you get to the adapters and joiners; that is the majority of us. Once something is proven and other people are starting to use it then you will cough up the money or you make the change in your life and bring that in to your life and this is the big hump of people; a big group of people that make something work, because all of a sudden its everywhere.

Then you have your resisters. These are the people who say "You know its been working alright up to now; why do we have to change?" Now these are the people who just got email in the last few years. They have been resisting it. You know, spam who needs to deal with all that if I don't have email I don't have to deal with that. And then you've got the laggers who those are the people who still don't have email. But you know their life is complete without having to add these new things. It's just silly to have to chase these fads in our culture. All of these categories are normal. None of them are sinful. None of them are more spiritual. It's just who we were born to be; how we were raised and the choices we have made, that we fit somewhere along there. But wherever we are there, you come to a point where there is too much change or the change that is happening scares you. So no matter where we are, change can bring up fear in our life and dealing with that fear is an important issue, because fear is a faith issue.

God knows about our fears. In the Bible there is about 30 times where someone says to someone else, some other believer; be strong, be courageous. There is nearly 70 times when one spokesperson, an angel or prophet or whatever speaks to a believer and says, "Do not be afraid" nearly 70 times. It almost seems to be part of the greeting that angels give to people. "Hi, I am Gabriel, do not be afraid." God understands and knows the fears that we have when things are not in our normal routine; when things start to seem threatening around us. Fear is a constant issue because change is a constant issue in our lives and how we handle that, how we respond to these changes and fears in our relationship with God is a critical issue, because fear is a faith issue.

In today's passage we are going to look at a situation where David is giving his fears to God in a prayer and that happens in Psalm 142 for those of you who would like to look in to the pew Bibles it is around page 446, somewhere around there I think. Psalm 142:

Let's pray. Lord, as we read your word, as we think about it, open our eyes, open our hearts for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

"I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way. In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me. Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, O Lord; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living." Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me."

Now, right before the passage that I read there is a little line at the start of this Psalm that says a math skill of David when he was in the cave- a prayer. Now, David is in a cave writing this Psalm. Why is he in the cave? How did he get there? This begins for David with a call from God on his life. David is just living with his family doing the shepherd thing. He is taking care of animals. He's got no big ambitions. He is not going out seeking some kind of change. He is not going to Jerusalem trying to agitate the people to look at him differently. He is just in his routine. A prophet comes works through the family, points to David and says, "You are God's anointed future king." Now the problem with this is that Israel already has a king and so that call of God on David's life starts to change things for him and it brings all kinds of experiences in to his life that he just would not have had otherwise and many of them were confusing and painful and made him afraid.

The biggest trouble in all of this is David spent a period of years trying to respect an existing king, King Saul, who was progressively going mad and this King Saul tried to take David's life on multiple occasions and one of those times the situation was so dangerous that David leaves and goes with a bunch of people and hides in the middle of the wilderness and he finds himself in this cave. So it's important to know that this situation, which is serious, if he is found he will be killed. In this situation that is causing David to be afraid and not know what his options are; this situation is from God. It's because of the call of God on his life; not because he disobeyed in some major way, not because he has precipitated this, it's just come at him. And in this situation, David approaches God. In this situation his faith is tested, because fear is a faith issue.

What David does with his fear is he begins to pray. Let's take a look at Verses 1 and 2. "I cry aloud to the Lord. I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him. Before him I tell my trouble." Look at the important words there; cry aloud, lift up my voice, pour out my complaint, tell my trouble. David is being serious with God in this prayer and he is being emotionally honest. "I pour out my complaint before him." David is complaining to God. Now he is not complaining about God. To complain about God is something that is pointed out many times in the Bible as being something that is something very serious, something to avoid; where we say God you are in the wrong here for letting this happen in my life. You know, why me God? You shouldn't do this and we start to judge God in our complaint. That is not what David is doing here. David is bringing a complaint to God. "God my life is hard. These things are confusing. I don't understand. No one is helping me. God deliver me." And he brings all of the ugliness of that, all of his confusion, all of his fear he brings it to God and he lays out his complaint before God with reverence and respect, but he still complains.

Now the important principle here for us is that David is complaining to the right person. One of the principles Jesus taught about our relationship with other people is that if we have some kind of situation where someone has done us wrong or we have an issue between us, we are supposed to go and talk to that person and not talk about that person to other people. It's a good foundational principle about human relationships. And here is the same principle at work in our relationship with God. David is facing a situation that is so big, so complicated, so sovereign, that God is the one that's ultimately in control and responsible about this and so David goes and talks to him about it, even though it's a complaint. Now sometimes we spend a phenomenal amount of energy talking to people about things we don't like; unloading our complaints on one another. Now some of this is okay. In other words, there is a proper place in our lives for seeking out wisdom, seeking support, seeking understanding from other people; that is totally legitimate. But there is somewhere out there and its different in different situations, we cross the line and we are unloading all of this complaint and ugliness and fear on people around us and we are not praying about it. We are not talking to the one who actually has the authority and power to do something about it. Far too often I fall in that pattern. I find myself complaining to my wife Debbie and doing that with more time than my prayer about it; even on things that have nothing to do with her. It's a easy pattern to fall in to.

So the first thing we see David doing that is constructive about handling our fear in the face of change is that we bring those complaints to God. Let's look farther in to this. Verses 3 and 4:

"When my spirit grows faint within me, it's you who know my way. In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me. Look to my right and see no one is concerned for me."

Now the image here is that when someone was accused, when someone was in a courtroom type situation in this culture, in Hebrew culture, all of the support people, all of the defense would be to the right of the person accused. And so he is saying, "God look at this situation. In the spot where my supporters should be, where my cheerleaders should be, where the people who are trying to help me out should be, there is no one there. I have no refuge. No one cares for my life." But he starts this section by saying, "When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way." There is a contrast here between the people who failed David and sometimes people are going to fail us. When we expect them to be in our corner, taking our side they are not going to be there. They are not going to understand. And in this situation, David says people are not fulfilling the right role in my life. I feel abandoned right now, but you God know my way and you God care about it.

The thing to notice about David's prayer here is David is not calling upon God to notice his situation. In some religious traditions there is a beginning to prayer. For example, in Japan at temples there is a bell with a big rope on it and when you go there you pull on the bell and then you clap and my Japanese friends have told me that you can think of that in terms of trying to get the attention of the deity of that place. That is not what is happening in David's prayer. David knows that God already knows. David knows that God already cares. And what David is doing in this prayer is raising his eyes up to acknowledge the reality of God in the midst of his situation. Prayer isn't about calling God's attention to us, but about focusing our attention on God.

I have a friend, Bobbye Byerly who said this in a book that she wrote.

"We must remember that praying is not about getting God's attention;
the purpose of prayer is to focus our attention on him."

Because as we pray we raise our eyes. We start to understand and remember that God loves us in the midst of this situation; that God is wise and will share his wisdom with us; that God is in control and that nothing has hit us that hasn't first gone through his controlling hand, that he knows our way, that he cares about it, that he sees the snares, as David puts it. And all of that is true whether we pray or not, but as we pray we experience the strength and peace that comes from our relationship with God in the middle of that, because our fear is linked to our faith, because fear is a faith issue.

But, as we pray more happens than just our heart changing. The situation around us changes as well, as God's power is applied to it. There is some things that God has said won't happen unless we pray. Jesus told us the fields are ripe for the harvest. God wants to impact the world so, therefore, pray that God will send people in to the harvest. Our prayers are part of a whole picture of God doing something. In James, Chapter 4 it says this, "You do not have, because you do not ask God." We don't have some things because we haven't asked for it. Jesus said, "Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened for you." There are things that we need to ask for and as we ask for it in prayer, as we take these fears and these concerns and bring them to God, God actually begins to change the situations around us and our prayer impacts the world.

And then David goes on. People have failed him, but what about God? "I cry to you O Lord" and this is what he says about God; "You are my refuge. You are my portion. Listen to me. Rescue me. Free me." David recognizes that ultimately the safe place, ultimately the place from which he is going to get true and lasting change in direction is from God. And so he holds on to God in expectation. People have failed me. There is no refuge in them, but you God are my refuge and he grabs on to God and he holds on in expectation and he prays and so what happens to David after that? The next morning nothing. He wakes up the next morning and he is still in a cave. There is still dangers outside. The likelihood that this is the very last thing he prayed the day before everything straightened out is extremely small. So David prayed this and he woke up the next morning and it was the same and he prayed it again and he held on to God again and he wrestled with his fears again and he went to sleep and he woke up in that darn cave again and he prayed again. And ultimately God protected him through it all, delivered him from it, vindicated him and he became king of Israel and he reigned over Israel. He ruled for 40 years. God totally protected him through this, but as he prayed it day after day he still woke up in that cave. And so we need to wait in faith like David did and handle our fears with God along the way.

So how do you handle your fears in the middle of change? Do you handle them like David? Do you take your fears and complaints to God and raise up your eyes in prayers from the problems to the reality of a loving God who is in control of it all and wait upon that God in faith? What would it look like in our lives if we really did that?

Well, first of all, when we get that fearful sour pit in our stomach; if we are going to be more like David then it means that the moment we feel that fear, we carve out more time in our lives to come to God; not frantically run around and try all kinds of solutions and give more effort to all kinds of possibilities. Those things have their place, but if we are going to handle it like David, we are going to pray first. There will be a little less activity, but it will be effective activity because one of the things that it says in scriptures about the godly person is that they inquire of God before they act. So that would be one of the differences for us.

Another difference would mean that there would be a lot less griping to one another about things we don't like if we take David seriously. Often I believe we don't want to pray about something that's causing us fear, that's challenging us, because we are afraid that God might change us and not change our situation. Because if we are really going to pray, we are going to lose control at some point. Even Jesus came to a point where he said, "Not my will, but yours be done." And sometimes I think we are afraid to really pray about it, because we have a sense that you know part of the reason why we are so upset here is something in us and we don't want to deal with that. We would rather just unload it on other people.

One of my great regrets about my final years in Japan was how much I complained to Debbie about our situation. I complained daily. I complained intensely. I complained multiple times, every day for a period of years, years. It's embarrassing to say it. And yet that was the reality in my life then. Now I was complaining a lot to God as well. I was trying to unload this. I had a load of complaints to God, but I hadn't gotten to that point of God wrestling me in to that position where I was saying, "Not my will, but yours be done." And when that moment came, peace came and thankfully it gave Debbie a little bit more peace too.

When we are in trouble we need to talk to the management. We need to be talking to God. And if we are in this and taking David seriously and trying to learn how to handle our fear in a godly way, it would mean less fear and more waiting in our lives if we follow David's pattern, because fear is a faith issue and as we pray about things first we change and we experience the security of God's love and we grow in confidence and we grow in the peace that I talked about. Not because we have our solution, but because we know and trust God while we wait for a solution. And even though the situation might remain the same, our fear decreases as we wait upon God to act and yet at the same time if we prayed like this we would see more amazing things happen around us, because waiting on God in prayer is consecration. Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. As we seek God in prayer, God unlocks things of power that we would have never experienced any other way, things that only God can do.

So where does that leave us? There is a few basic realities. We are going to have big change in our lives. You can't escape it. We are going to have fears when those changes come. No matter where we are in the spectrum, we are going to fear when some of those changes come. And those fears and how we handle it is an important issue, because fear is a faith issue. We've got to deal with our trust in God, because its directly related to how panicked we are feeling about life around us. So we have to bring our fears to God. We have to talk to the management.

Let's pray. God, we are all over the map and we are having all different kinds of struggles and yet all of us share the fact that we all experience change and we all fear parts about it. So thank you God for your presence and that as we pray you will change us and change the situation around us. For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

© 2007, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org