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Taking the Fear Out of the Future
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Last week I began by saying a distinguished friend of mine
had reflected that he doesn’t remember any time in his lifetime that there has
been such a high level of anxiety all across our culture and that I would preach
a sermon or two or three on anxiety. And today I want to talk about future
anxiety, taking the fear out of the future. Some time ago I was in the grocery
store and somewhere between the cat food and the coffee I heard a voice saying
to me are you Dr. Flamming? And I said yes. I had never seen her before. She
said I see you on television and when I can’t go to my church I go to yours and
I go by television. Could you answer me a question? And I said I’ll try. She
said I don’t know how to pray anymore. I am completely overcome with anxiety
and fear of the future. I am terrified by the world in which my grandchildren
are going to be raised in. How do you pray about the future, a future that you
are worried about and you don’t know what to do about and really feel powerless
to do anything about?
What about you? Are you worried about the future? If
you’re not I think you ought to check your pulse. Almost all of us are worried
about what’s happening and what’s going to happen. When you pile it all up
together it is a pile of anxiety or at least stuff about which we can be
anxious. On that day in the grocery store, you know, how do you answer a
question that has so many different ramifications? I have learned that the best
thing to do in a situation like that is to quote scripture because God often
uses scripture in order to speak to a person. And so I quoted some favorite
verses of mine as well as from yours: Deuteronomy. 31:8, we had it as a verse
of the month not too many months ago, “The Lord Himself goes before you. He,
Himself, goes before you. He will not leave you, He will not forsake you
therefore do not be discouraged and do not be afraid.” Very close to that is
Joshua, 1st chapter, 9th verse. Joshua 1st
chapter, 9th verse goes like this: Joshua is now on the edge of the
promised land, Moses has had to give to him the leadership, Moses is no more.
Joshua, God says: “Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous. Do not
be terrified, do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you
wherever you go.”
The Lord Himself goes before you. However long you live
and however many miles you travel, however many degrees you have after your name
God will very much be ahead of you. We hear well God knows the future. Well
sure He does if He’s God. That’s not the point. That God knows the future is
clear enough but that’s not enough. The Lord doesn’t just know the future the
Lord’s already there. He is beckoning us as it were saying you’ve got work to
do come on and join me. God, you see, is not bound by past and present and
future. The same presence of the Lord that you feel right now is already
present in what is ahead of us. David says in Psalms 16:8, you might want to
turn over there, Psalms 16:8. If you have a pew Bible it’s page 854, page 854,
Psalms 16:8. By the way Psalms 16 is just a wonderful Psalm and if it isn’t a
favorite of yours let me make it right now. In the middle of it David says,
verse 7: “I will praise the Lord who counsels me even at night my heart
instructs me and I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right
hand I will not be shaken and therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices
and my body will rest secure.”
Ruth Graham who lives in the Shenandoah Valley and is the
daughter of Billy Graham, who’s spoken in our church, has a new little book out
entitled “A Legacy of Faith”. It is the legacy that she has through her
father. And I discovered that when she was growing up that the family and Billy
Graham called her “Bunny”. She shares an experience of her younger years in
that book. Ruth was going through a terribly difficult time when she was away
at school and her father wrote to her: “There are two little words that I have
used time after time when I have faced dilemmas and problems and even the devil.
These two little words are fear not.” Someone has said that they are the
divine hush for God’s children and Billy Graham continues his letter to Ruth,
his daughter, “All of us face problems and we need the Divine hush to fear
not.” To Abraham God said fear not I am your shield and your exceeding great
reward. He continues to Joshua God said “ Fear not, do not be discouraged.”
And to Gideon: “Peace be unto you, fear not for you will not die.” Billy
continues, now Bunny the devil is going to try to get you down a thousand
times. He is going to work every angle. He is an old and experienced hand at
discouragement, despondency, fear, anxiety and especially is he an expert at
sidetracking young people. Remember dear Bunny we love you but God loves you
even more and even while you are sleeping He is at work with your problems.”
There’s a phrase I don’t know I come across. Even while you
are asleep He is at work with your problems. Fear not, the Divine hush to put
fear in its place. Wouldn’t you like to quiet the noisy sounds of fear in your
heart? Then listen to these words, and not only listen to them but let them go
from your ears to your heart. This is God speaking; fear not, the Divine hush
upon your spirit. And more than a thousand years, a good many more than a
thousand years after God gave those words to Moses He gave them to the Apostle
Paul as he is writing to his son in the faith, Timothy. And here’s what he
wrote to his son in the faith, Timothy: “God has not given us a spirit of fear
but of love and of power and of a sound mind.” Sometimes sound mind is
translated discipline, personal discipline; fear not, the Divine hush for God’s
children. Fear not, say it with me, fear not. The Divine hush for God’s
children, say it with me, the Divine hush for God’s children. Walk out of here
this day a little more encouraged that God knows your fear and He takes it
seriously and He has given you His spirit so that you can have the power to
overcome it.
Now let’s listen to Jesus. I want you to turn, please, to
Matthew the 6th chapter and the 34th verse, Matthew 6 and
34. I believe the number is 1505 if you need it in your pew Bible. Jesus has
been speaking about anxiety and He says in this chapter which is so crucial as a
study about anxiety He says that we are not to worry, verse 25 about life and I
have a sermon coming upon that paragraph or two so I’m going to pass that over.
So look in verse 34 when Jesus sums it up and says: “Therefore do not be
anxious or do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of it’s own.” It is realism to the core. Each day
has enough trouble of its own therefore, what Jesus is saying is fasten and
focus your attention on what God is trying to do today through you. Because
what God is trying to do through you today matters, matters eternally.
2005, three men that had worked together for literally
years and decades got together for the New York Crusade, Billy Graham, Cliff
Barrows, Bev Shea. If you don’t know who these names are, Billy Graham is
doubtless the most famous evangelist of this era. Bev Shea the soloist. Cliff
Barrows the song leader and the platform manager. As they were in that crusade
it became obvious to virtually everybody that it was probably the last time
these three men would be together. When Bev Shea got up to sing he said you
know I was 37 years old when I started with Billy Graham, I am now 96. We’ve
been together a long time. And then he burst into song “How Great Thou Art”. I
couldn’t help but remember when Bev Shea was here not too many years ago. He
had a concert and we invited the community and the place was packed out and that
big, deep bass voice of his just rolled from this place all over this room. It
was not what it once was but it was so much better than most anybody else. And
now those three guys together for all of those years, tears all over the
congregation, all over that crusade tears flowing. They knew this would likely
never happen again. Ruth Graham sitting next to her mother named Ruth, was
weeping. She had grown up with these people. She called Bev Shea Uncle Bev and
Cliff Barrows Uncle Cliff. She was weeping and her mother reached and tapped
her on the hand and said when God is in it a life that is over is not finished.
That’s true of you too. When God is in your everyday that day that is over is
not finished. When you put your full attention on what could happen in the
future you’re robbing God of today. How can we get it back? I have a little
recipe. When they had that crusade they had a big press conference. One of the
reporters asked Billy Graham what is your favorite prayer and without hesitation
he said my favorite prayer, I pray it all the time and I’m praying it right now
in front of all of you wonderful people. The prayer is this: “Lord help me.
Lord help me.” It’s a present tense prayer. It’s a today prayer not a tomorrow
prayer. It’s a right now prayer. It’s a right moment prayer. It’s your
prayer, right now. Lord help me. Now wouldn’t you think that if Billy Graham
could make that his favorite prayer you might want to make it one of your
favorite prayers?
I give you two things when you gather around this table and
we break the bread and we drink the cup that the Lord gave us. The first one is
the Divine hush fear not. The second one is a prayer for any day and everyday,
Lord help me. Pray with me will you? Oh Lord Jesus I come and I lift up unto
you all of our heart’s desires, our heart’s tensions and our stresses and our
anxieties and I lift them all up. But just now help us to hear your Spirit in a
soft and gentle still small voice saying oh son, daughter, fear not, fear not.
And may we respond, Lord help me. Lord helps us all and helps us to believe
that wherever we’re going in the future you’re already there, you’re already
there. I pray this in the strong and wonderful name of Jesus Christ who is the
same yesterday, today and forever, Amen.
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