Do not be afraid (Genesis 42)
Billy Milton - January 6, 2008
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“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 (NLT)
I want to ask you this morning as we stand on the threshold of another new year. Do you believe these words? Whatever challenges lie ahead of us this year – do you believe that God is 100% with you and will 100% uphold you or has hard experience persuaded you that God only helps other people? As we heard from Mike’s reading in Genesis 42, Jacob didn’t trust God completely! He allowed his past experiences to dictate his future actions. Fear reduced his options. But we’ll get back to that in a minute.
Today we’re setting the scene for a new series beginning next week called, ‘Challenging our Culture’. Over the course of the next few months we will be challenging some of the commonly held beliefs in our culture such as: there is no such thing as absolute truth; that God is a delusion; that Christians are intolerant and hypocritical; that all roads lead to God, and many other such topics. Part of the job of the local church is to stand up and challenge our culture wherever we see God’s truths being compromised or squeezed out. There’s one big problem with doing that - actually I suppose its two problems.
1. We’ve tried to confront our culture in the past and either been ignored and/or laughed at. I sometimes write to my MP on issues that concern me but I rarely receive a reply that isn’t dismissive in its tone.
2. The second problem with challenging our culture, apart from being ignored or sneered at, is that we are just plain afraid.
Fear is one of the two big emotions that govern our lives. The other is love, or at least the desire to be loved. Love, for example, influences your feelings, your behaviour, and even your looks. Yes, when someone is really in love it makes them more attractive people. It softens them and makes them more optimistic about life and it shows in their faces and in their attitudes.
The same is true of fear. It can affect your thoughts, your conduct, and even your physical health. However, no matter what our past experience has taught us, as we look forward to another year of service for God, we cannot afford to sink into the fear mode or to remain in the fear mode. As I said earlier about Jacob in Genesis 42:4, I was struck by how fear had taken hold of Jacob and rendered him inactive. “But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him” See also Gen 42:38 – “Everything is against me!”
Jacob was allowing fear to dictate his actions. Now, you need to understand that Benjamin at this time was already an adult and a father of ten sons! This was not a case of a caring father protecting a helpless child from harm. It was a case of a man no longer willing to take risks. He was no longer willing to risk losing that which was precious to him. Of course, it’s true that Jacob had suffered several reversals culminating in the supposed ‘death’ of his beloved son, Joseph. It was like bad things were always coming his way. It was as if the God of Abraham was no longer fully in control of things and so he had to take charge. So now he was holding hard to all that was precious to him in desperate fear of losing them too. Benjamin had become one of those ‘things’ that he couldn’t release.
I know that for some of you 2007 was difficult, as was 2006, but you cannot afford to live in the fear that 2008 will just continue the pattern. We are all well aware that life can be harsh and we have all at some time endured times of testing, but, let’s be honest, more often than not our suffering has nothing to do with God and a whole lot to do with our own choices. Whatever has afflicted us thus far the message of the Christmas angels still applies, “Do not be afraid…” God is still in control and he is able to redeem the past and take us to where we should be… if we will only yield control to him. Jacob felt everything had gone out of control and that at any moment another setback could happen. But the truth is that it’s this very mind-set that attracts ills and robs us of God’s best.
Have you ever noticed that some people seem to breeze through life and good things seem to happen to them without them even appearing to try very hard? We used to say of that type of person that if they fell into the River Clyde they’d come up with a salmon in their pocket! On the other hand there are those who seem to attract ‘bad luck’ no matter what they do. And this becomes so much the norm in their life that they’ll say things like, “Yeah, its alright for him - he’s always lucky.” “Everything is against me!” Or else they’ll lament their lack of physical attributes or talents – if only I was taller/smaller/thinner/fatter and so on. If only I’d had this or that lucky break I’d be successful. But me, if it wasn’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have no kinda luck at all – as Rita Coolidge used to sing.
Listen to this carefully; it’s an irrefutable fact of life that people who expect bad things to happen to them are rarely disappointed! What I’m saying is that if things keep going wrong in your life and you continually experience bad things happening to you then it is almost certainly your own fault, and nobody else’s! And the problem is that it becomes such second nature to you to think in fearful terms that you cannot break the cycle. You live in continuous fear and it governs all your words and thoughts and deeds.
I want to urge you at the start of a new year, don’t allow your past disappointments to rob you of a joyful confidence in God. PAUSE Jacob chose to remember only the bad things that had happened to him and his family and he was now going into self-protect mode - I know how this will end up. I know that I’ll lose Benjamin and I’m not prepared to take that risk.
What a difference between father and son. Joseph, Jacob’s son, also went through repeated reversals in his life, much more so than Jacob. The wickedness of his brothers took him from his father’s house, led him into slavery and landed him in prison for years. But unlike his father he didn’t yield to fear. He didn’t allow ‘bad luck’ to define who he was. He never lost that unswerving confidence in the faithfulness of God no matter what life brought his way. He believed that even when he couldn’t see God, God was with him and at work for him. And this allowed God to work out his best for Joseph through life’s worst circumstances. God wants to work out his best for your life too no matter where you might be coming from or experienced in the past. This is why I strongly believe that, as we get ready to enter another year, God is saying that none of us can afford to walk in fear.
This kind of fear I am talking about is manifested firstly by an unwillingness to take risks – an unwillingness to step out in faith at God’s command and walk on water. Some of us have lost our spirit of adventure and all we are doing is just trying to stay in our comfort zone. Oh we’re happy to talk about risks and we perhaps admire others who take risks but we’ve long since stopped taking any ourselves. God wants us to break out of this bondage of fear and he longs to do great things in you and through you in the coming year but it will not happen if you are not willing to step out of the boat (like Peter did) and walk on water as you obey God’s word to you.
Think back. Has God given you a word or promise in the past? This is the time to revive that word by believing it, praying it, confessing it, and fulfilling its conditions. Has God given you an idea to do something? Abandon fear and go for it! If we are going to see the manifestation of God’s best in our life in 2008 we must be ready to take risks. There is so little that God can do for, or through, us when we walk in fear.
Secondly, this fear I am talking about can be seen in a stingy clinging to what we have – to our own little treasures, like Jacob did. Our level of faith or fear can be seen in what we cling onto and refuse to give up. Don’t yield to that fear! In 2008 be abundant daring in your giving, whether it’s your money or your time. Lose this scarcity mentality that seems to hold so many of us captive.
Personally, I am excited about what God is going to accomplish in the coming year in KRC …and in my own life. But I have to confess to a degree of fear. In fact as I try to envisage what lies ahead, I could easily allow myself to become paralysed by fear. The dream I have for this church is going to require a lot of financing - where is it all going to come from? Will people continue to be so willing to give their time so readily as they have in the past? What happens if some key people move away? Do I still have the energy to do all that God wants of me? And so it goes on. Fear could immobilise me if I allowed it to. Can you understand that feeling? So, what to do?
Listen to this phrase and learn it well. Fear lies down at the feet of a person who takes action. So here’s what I’m going to do – I invite you to join me. I am making a conscious decision not to give in to fear. I am going to consciously draw closer to God so that I can hear him. With expectancy I am stepping out of the boat of my comfort zone and I know that even though he calls me to walk on water I shall not sink. I am very expectant of God for the future. Are you? I encourage you to give up fear and begin to walk in expectancy. Do not allow the fruit that God has prepared for you in 2008 to wither on the vine untasted, maybe even unseen.
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
* The idea for this sermon came from an email I received from Chimezie & Ibidun Onyebilanma who are serving God in South Africa. To subscribe to their inspirational newsletter each week, write to chim_ibidun@hotmail.com