The Monster Emotion

Great to be with you. My name is René, another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church, and welcome whether you're joining us here in the auditorium or in venue or you're watching on Facebook live. It's just great to have you with us.

I want to talk to you this morning about something that humans do better than any other creature on the planet. Now I'm not going to reveal it right now because it could be a lot of things, but I want to talk to you about the thing that scientists say that we as a species would be the undisputed world champions of. There is no other creature on the planet that does this as naturally as we do. I want to talk to you about fear.

In a book called "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers," Dr. Robert Sapolsky, who's a professor of neurology at Stanford University, points out that zebras and most other animals have a fight-or-flight instinct. In immediate danger, flushed with adrenaline, they take off, but when the threat's not there, they calm right back down. They are basically incapable of imagining a threat that's not really there, unlike you and me. It's something that can be both a blessing and a curse for our species.

Humans have a unique aptitude for accumulating knowledge and imagining future outcomes. You got that? Accumulating knowledge, remembering stuff, and then imagining future outcomes. Now that leads to a lot of good stuff, right? The ability to plan and innovate, and it leads to the possibility of science and research and that delicious sense of "I can't wait" because you're imagining good stuff like "I cannot wait to go to Disneyland." This is our 33rd wedding anniversary, and right after church, Laurie and I are going to Disneyland today, so I'm really excited about that. I'm anticipating it.

I can't wait until next year when the Niners will win the Super Bowl. Maybe that's too soon. I can't wait, but it can also produce a sense of what if. What if everything falls apart? What if this happens? What if the worst thing happens, right? True confessions here: this past week, I'm awake at one in the morning the day before our church board meeting on Tuesday when I know I really need to be sharp because our board chair was out of town, so I know I'm gonna have to lead the meeting. So I tell myself, "Man, relax, René, it's one o'clock in the morning. Go back to sleep. You need to get your sleep because you need to be sharp tomorrow at the board meeting." Now what do you think happens? I don't go to sleep.

So I start to get mad at myself, and I tell myself, "I said relax!" Right? Now I start imagining, predicting how tired I'm gonna feel at the board meeting, how my brain's gonna be all foggy, and I'm gonna say stupid stuff. I get more and more angry at myself that I'm not asleep, and then I start thinking about the board meeting and start imagining all the things that could go wrong in the discussion. By now it's 2:30 in the morning, and now I start to notice that pain in my side when I roll over, and I think I do remember feeling that before. The answer is now plain: I have liver cancer. Of course, why have I been ignoring the symptoms? Now it's after 3 in the morning, and I've gone to imagining my own death. When I'm gone, will the church be okay? Will my wife and kids be okay?

So then I decide this is crazy; I need a distraction from these morbid thoughts. I'll pick up my iPhone and check the news headlines. Big mistake! Now I start thinking about national politics, and I start imagining if that person wins the election, maybe I'm better off dead. You know what ifs can lead to torture because we are activating a tool, a God-given tool, fear that is meant for responding to immediate physical danger for short bursts, and instead we're sustaining it for hours on end or months on end as we imagine threats.

Now just to be clear, the board meeting turned out great. The church is doing great, praise God, we have nothing but blessings to report. As far as I know, I fell asleep halfway through, but in the middle of the night, my fear painted it all in dark colors. I want to see a show of hands. Has anything like that ever happened to you in the middle of the night? I thought so. Let's talk about it.

Habits of the Heart is our series for the new year, and we're wrapping it up this weekend. Excuse me, I think I've got just a little touch of what's been going around, but the key verse for the series is Proverbs 4:23: above all else, guard your what? Your heart. For everything you do flows from it. All our outward behavior that we often try to stop is just really symptoms. It's being influenced by what's down in your heart.

So far in this series, we've looked at guilt, which is overcome by the habit of confession; anger, overcome by forgiveness; greed, overcome by the habits of generosity and gratitude; and you can see all these in the message notes that I put inside your bulletin for today. Now this morning, I want to wrap up this series by looking at one final heart toxin. Now in the book "Enemies of the Heart" by Andy Stanley, that we based this series on, his final heart enemy in the book is jealousy, which is important to address, but for this week, I want to break from the book to talk about another heart toxin that I see taking over our culture right now, and that is fear.

Fear right now is just out of control. Do you agree with this? Check this out: Time magazine ran a story recently headline "Why Americans Are More Afraid Than They Used to Be." The article says, according to all of the researchers, Americans right now today have a higher perceived level of fear than Americans did in the weeks immediately following the Pearl Harbor attack in World War II. We clearly aren't in as great a danger as people were then, but we're also afraid.

Rolling Stone magazine recently published "Why We're Living in the Age of Fear," and in the article, they quote Barry Glassner. He's the author of a book called "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things," and he says most Americans live in what is arguably the safest time and place in human history, and yet fear levels are sky-high. Why? He says we're living in the most fear-mongering time in human history. There's a lot of power available to people and groups who can perpetuate fear. What kind of people? What kind of groups?

Well, Steve Jarding, who teaches political campaigning at Harvard University, said the essence of campaigns today is anger and what? Fear. Fear. He says that's how you win, and as a pastor, this is of concern to me because I can guarantee you in the next few months, since this is an election year, you have a giant target right on your head, and there's all kinds of candidates that are going to try to poke your fear button. They're gonna try to manipulate you. I don't want to be manipulated, do you? Raise your hand if you want to be manipulated by fear mongers.

So how do you prevent that from happening since we as human beings are so good at fear? Well, let's talk about how to learn to live not in fear. This is a huge concern of the Bible. All through the Bible, God says things to people in real actual danger like this to Joshua and the nation of Israel when they're ready to cross the Jordan and go into a very dangerous land. He says, "Don't be terrified, don't be discouraged." Centuries later, Jerusalem surrounded by enemies, and God says, "Be careful, keep calm, and don't be afraid, don't lose heart." Then years later, to a king again threatened by the Babylonian war machine surrounding the city of Jerusalem, he says this: "But now this is what the Lord says: fear not." And Jesus told this to his disciples over and over and over again. One time in a life-threatening storm, he said, "Take courage; it is I. Don't be afraid."

I could have filled your notes with all kinds of Bible verses about fear. In fact, every single book of the Bible has some form of the phrase "fear not." The command "fear not" is in the Bible by one count 365 times. In fact, "fear not" is the most common greeting from God or an angel to human beings in the Bible. Why? Because God does not want you to be manipulated by the fear mongers. God loves you, and he does not want you to live in constant terror. He doesn't want you to be damaged.

Look at some of fear's damaging effects, and I shortened a list that Rick Warren wrote here. First, paralyzed potential. Fear makes you think, "I could apply for that job, but I might not get it, so I'm not gonna do it." "I could share my faith with that person, but I probably just be rejected, so I'm not gonna do it." And so fear is a self-fulfilling prophecy; it paralyzes latent potential. Another effect: ruined relationships. Your fears affect everybody around you. Question: have you ever seen a parent ruin their relationship with their kids because of their own fears? Absolutely. Have you ever seen a boss at work stifle his employees' creativity because of his own fears? Happens all the time. Your fears affect everybody around you.

Third, lapses in logic. When people are afraid, they will believe anything, any conspiracy theory, any scapegoat, because you can't think straight when you're afraid. And of course, fear is a prelude to panic, to behaving in ways that are destructive. Mob rule: every political tyrant, every religious cult leader has gotten power by appealing to people's fears. And so God says, "Do not fear" hundreds of times because he loves you, and he doesn't want you to experience all that.

There is one verse of the Bible that summarizes what all those hundreds of other verses of the Bible say, really. If you look at all those other verses of the Bible, they can be divided into three different categories, three different reasons why you should not be afraid. There is one verse of the Bible that summarizes all three of those categories in just a few words, and I want to settle on that verse for the rest of the message today and illustrate it with some of these other verses. I truly believe, in fact, I challenge you, if you commit this one verse to memory and practice what it says, you will be way ahead when it comes to handling your fear. And here it is: it's 2 Timothy 1:7. Let's say this out loud together, would you say it with me? "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Are you hearing this? God has not given you that spirit of fear. That's not from God.

If you're feeling this daily sense of anxiety and fear, this constant kind of low hum of background fear in your life, that's not from God. My wife, Lori, came back from a visit to the post office one day. She had to drop off some packages, and I say, "Hi, hon," and she blows right past me. I said, "Where are you going?" She goes, "I just got to write down this conversation I just turned at the post office." You know I love overheard conversations, real conversations. She sits down and types it at her laptop, and she's done. Here is the actual conversation that she wrote down from memory. She was in line at the post office. The woman in front of her is talking to the clerk, and the woman, the customer, says, "The world is just going to pot." The postal clerk says to her, "To hell in a handbasket." And the customer says, "Everything's so crazy politically and climate change, and I can't pay my bills." The clerk says, "Me neither, me neither."

And the customer says, "Every single time I turn on the news, it's just a disaster." And the clerk says, "A disaster, a disaster." And I just heard there's gonna be tons of solar flares this week that are gonna ruin everything else that's not ruined already. And then this clerk turns to the clerk next to her and says, "Oh, sorry, we're probably depressing you." And he says, "Not anymore depressed than I already am. I'm so depressed already I couldn't go any lower. I'm as low as low can go." And Lori says she's looking at all these people thinking, "Okay, these are postal workers; where are the exits?" Then one of the postal clerks says, "What does the Bible say about all this?" And Lori's like, and just before Lori can get a word out, the second clerk says, "The Bible? The Christians all said the world was coming to an end, and Y2K, remember that? Christians, they're even worse than us," which totally cracked me up, right? And by the way, if you're a postal worker, this is all in good fun; don't write me an angry email of resume. I love you.

But I heard that, and I thought, this is how some people apparently see us as followers of Jesus. Christians, they're even worse than us. They're always running around like Chicken Little: "The sky is falling, the sky's falling, it's all a disaster." But this verse means if Christians are running around scared, scared of the future, scared of terrorism, scared of a virus, scared of the election, that is not from God. That is not a Christian thing to do. God has not given us a spirit of fear. So what has he given us? Power and love and a sound mind. That summarizes three antidotes to fear that are all through all those hundreds of other verses.

And these show page two of your notes how I overcome fear. You can tell I'm passionate about it. This is very personal for me because I've had to deal with fear and anxiety many, many times in my life. I've even wound up in the hospital with anxiety attacks, but the good news is I've got a lot of experience discovering what works. I still haven't mastered it, but I've read just about every fear and anxiety book I could lay my hands on. I think I've read every verse in the Bible about this and tried to memorize it. There is great help out there for you, but look at how this verse summarizes so much great scripture and great research.

First, Paul talks about power. I need to focus on God's power, God's power that is in you, that is with you. Look at Isaiah 41:13: "For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, 'Do not fear; I will help you.'" I love that: who takes hold of your right hand. God is saying to you, "Now you're not alone; take hold of my hand; I'm with you." Or Psalm 118, starting in verse 6: "The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is my helper." And it goes on: "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes." Such a good word for us in an election year. Am I trusting in God, or am I putting my trust in princes? I gotta please get involved with our democracy; please vote. But sometimes I feel like people on the left and the right, Christian and non-Christian, are virtually accepting some candidate into their lives as their personal Lord and Savior. You know, don't pin all your hopes for the kingdom of God to materialize on earth on some candidate and their agenda; pin your hopes on God.

Now when the Bible says God will be with you, this does not mean that you won't have trouble. In fact, in the book of Revelation, you see there Jesus says, "Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer." He says, "Do not be afraid," but he also says you will suffer. Christianity never promises, "Trust God and you will never suffer again; all your troubles are over forever." In fact, actually, it promises the opposite: you will suffer. In fact, a little bit more because you are a Christian in some ways, but don't be afraid. In other words, as they say, suffering is inevitable, but fear is optional. You will go through tough stuff, but God will be with you, and he will give you the power to get through it.

You know when my dad died of cancer, his very last words were these: "It's like a dream; God is all around me," and he laid his head back on his pillow and he died. He still suffered; he still died, but God was holding his right hand the whole time, and so he was not afraid. That is a spirit of power. And then second, in that verse, Paul mentions a spirit of love. I need to fill my life with love. 1 John 4:18: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear." Perfect love drives out fear. How does this work? Well, there are two ways that love neutralizes fear. The first is when I receive God's love to me. If I really believe that the creator of the universe loves me and came to the earth to show us the way, to be the way, to die on the cross and rise again to save me and to secure my eternal destiny forever, then my identity as God's beloved is incompatible with an attitude of fear.

When I receive God's love to me, and then the second way is when I offer God's love to others. I'll show you what I mean. A couple of weeks ago, I was at a thank-you dinner that we gave here for the volunteers in the care ministry here at Twin Lakes. Let me just tell you what I saw. The care ministry is a bunch of volunteers from TLC who just love to help people out, and they're from all walks of life. Many of them are from very tough life situations themselves: widows, widowers, retired people on a small fixed income. That night we all gathered together for an appreciation banquet for what they do all year long. Some of these people give out food at our people's pantry or home repair with our homemade ministry, or they fix cars with our Mom's Angels car repair ministry, or do hospital visitation, or they give rides to people with our Driving Angels ministry, and much, much more.

That night, they gave reports of some of the literally hundreds of people who were helped last year, and I thought two things. First, if people at Twin Lakes saw this bunch and heard what they did, they'd never be afraid again, at least never afraid of going hungry, never afraid of not affording a simple home repair, never afraid of being lonely because they'd know this church is full of loving people who are saying, "We can help." And you know what else? That night, I saw so much joy on those faces; I heard so much laughter, and you know what I did not see? Fear. They were the most confident, joyful group I have been around in a long time. Why? They were focused on serving others, not sitting around watching TV getting freaked out all the time, right? Why is love an antidote to fear? Because the root of a lot of fear is simply self-centeredness, a preoccupation with myself. I don't want to get hurt; I don't want to fail; I don't want to look bad; I want to lose that, whatever. And love gets the focus off yourself onto others.

So knowing I am perfectly loved by God in Christ Jesus and sharing that love of God with others drives out fear. And finally, the third antidote to fear: a sound mind. This is huge. I need to face down fear with facts. Let me just give you one example. I went through a phase a few years ago where I feared flying like I never had before, but I thought, "All right, I'm gonna face down this fear with facts." I went online and I read courses on overcoming flight fright, and you know what mainly what they do is they just give you the facts about airplanes, aerodynamics, and how that all works, and those facts helped me face down my fear.

Now in the original verse, the Greek translated "sound mind" means to be ordered, disciplined, self-controlled. It means don't panic; have a disciplined mind; control your thoughts. So let me ask you a question, and really think about your answer to this one: are you addicted to negative thinking? Are you addicted to negative thinking, thinking of the world in catastrophic terms? When our daughter Elizabeth was about four years old, she went through a phase; she was obsessed with being sad. I don't know why, but she was just in a phase where everything she imagined was just terrible. I could give you a lot of examples, but one morning I heard her wake up in the other room and yell, "Oh no, not again! No!" And I went running in. I said, "Elizabeth, what's wrong, honey?" And she said, "It's my belly button." I said, "What's wrong with your belly button?" "It just keeps slipping down." I said, "What?" She says, "See, a few days ago it started up here; now look at it!" I didn't know what to say. I said, "Honey, it's just your imagination." But she wouldn't have it; everything she was imagining was negative.

So that night, as I put her to bed, I read to her to calm her down some nice stories. I said, "Sweetheart, I hope that when you're older, you'll always choose to remember wonderful times like this." And she burst into tears. I said, "What's wrong now?" She said, "Daddy, when I'm 78 and I remember these times, you'll be dead!" She just started screaming, just in this phase, always seeing the negative. Is that you? By the way, it's hard to believe, but Elizabeth is 27 years old now, and her belly button is on her left kneecap. It's weird; turns out she was right.

Are you addicted to negative thinking? Our culture right now is promoting that addiction. News media constantly bombarding us with scary stories. Why? Because people stay tuned in, and so they have to paint everything in cataclysmic, apocalyptic terms. Every week it's, "This is the end of democracy; this is the end of our nation; this is the end of Christianity; this is the end of our planet." And the thing is, this is what they always do. Do you remember Y2K or mad cow disease or anthrax or SARS or the bird flu? So now, of course, coronavirus too. Good to resist. Am I saying this is not real news? No, it is real news, and we should be concerned; we should be praying about it. The problem is this: we live in an era of news omnipresence where instead of having to turn on the TV to see what's going on or pick up the newspaper, the news comes to you on your phone, on your browser, on your watch. Ding! The sky is falling again! Anything dire that happens anywhere on the planet, you and I now have almost god-like knowledge of, and that means now more than ever you've got to discipline your mind.

This does not mean you ignore facts; it means you discipline your imagination about the facts. Facts are facts, but where are you letting your imagination take you? Do you hear the news, even the bad news, and imagine what great good that God could possibly do even through this if his people respond as Christ would? Probably not. Someone said fear is the wrong use of imagination. Your imagination just runs wild negatively; that is not a disciplined mind.

Now again, I'm not saying completely unplug; just stop caring about poverty and homelessness and racism and sexism and drug addiction and all the other problems in our world. I'm saying be part of the solution like all those people I mentioned in the care ministry, but if you want to actually be effective and sustainable, you have to do it without fear and with an imagination that is fueled by a biblical optimism. Let me put it this way: anything might happen in the future, right? For some people, that's exciting; for another, that's scary, depending on how they determine to imagine that future happening. Now here's the thing: only one of them gets to be happy today. Does that make sense? Anything can happen in the future; at this point, the future is all guesswork; it's all just imagination. For some, that's exciting; for another, that's scary, but only one of them gets to be happy today.

This is why the early Christians were characterized by joy, even though they were going through terrible persecution. They believed absolutely that though there would be more suffering right around the corner, the kingdom of God was inevitably coming to earth. Now look at what Jesus said about this: "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Now he's talking specifically to his disciples here about knowing the gospel truth, the truth about Jesus and salvation, and now that can set you free from guilt and despair and lies and fear. So answer fear's questions with gospel truth. What am I talking about? Well, I put some of my own go-to verses on page three of your notes. I won't take the time to go through all of these because we don't have the time this morning, but take these home, meditate on these verses, bathe your mind in the truth, and the truth will set you free.

You know when your child's scared of the dark, what do you do? You turn on the light. Well, the gospel truth turns God's light on in your life. So live in the gospel truth. Now look at all these three points. This is the antidote to the spirit of fear: living with power, love, and a sound mind. In fact, let's read the key verse for today out loud together again, just kind of to put you a couple of steps ahead when it comes to memorizing this verse. Here we go: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

So I'm gonna close with this: what does that look like in real life, in the lives of real people? I'll give you an ancient example and a modern example. Think of Jesus's first followers. They'd always been so fearful. When Jesus was arrested, they all instantly ran in fear like scared rabbits. Then something happened, and suddenly they're not afraid of anything. What happened? That's right; they saw Jesus dead, and three days later they saw him alive again, and the first thing he said to them is, "Peace be with you; don't be afraid." And from that moment on, they got it, and they knew that even if worse came to worst and they died, death was not the end. They believed Jesus when he said, "Fear not," and as Andy Stanley puts it, "Fear not changed the world." Because as they went into the world, even threats of death could not shut them up. Even one of the early opponents of Christianity wrote, "There's nothing we can do to silence these men and women, for fearlessness of death and the hereafter is something we witness in them every day."

And you know what? That can happen again. Followers of Jesus can become known not as nervous and scared, always waiting for the sky to fall, but as the most confident and peaceful and gracious people that there are. I'll show you the person in my life who embodied that more than anyone I ever knew: it was my wife's grandmother, Grace Edinger. Grace lived to be 103 years old, and here she is at her hundredth birthday party. Isn't that amazing? I'm a little more than half her age in this picture, and I don't look this good. But through all those years, a century of life, she went through so many tragedies: poverty, abandonment, two world wars, some of her own children dying, yet always so peaceful and confident. Can't you just see it radiating from her even in this photograph?

So one time I asked her, "Grandma Grace, why are you the way you are? What lesson have you learned about how to get through life?" And here's what she said: "René, it's simple: trust in the Lord with all your heart. Just trust him. Just trust him. Just trust that God knows what he's doing and he's going to bring good even out of this." That's the antidote to fear. The bottom line: all three of the points I've gone over today, these are all part of the daily habit of trusting. That's how you overcome the toxin of fear. But listen, it has to be a daily habit. You don't do this just once. Well, I trusted in Jesus when I was a kid at camp. You daily affirm in prayer, "I trust you, Lord, with today, and no matter what happens, you will work through it. I know you will for the good," and you will find fear shrinking.

You know, as we wrap up this series, I was thinking the happiest people I know are the people who have these habits in the right side column: daily confessing; they're not defensive; they're doing that moral inventory; they admit their faults to others and to God and to themselves; daily forgiving; they're not grudge holders; daily being grateful, generous; daily trusting. We all want to be happy, right? Everybody wants to be happy, and we tend to look for happiness in all the wrong places. Well, that's how to find it: those habits of the heart.

Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads and your hearts with me? With our heads bowed, I just want to invite everybody here and everybody watching into a silent prayer. I invite you to say to God, "I trust you. I trust you with my future. I just fully place my trust in you." Maybe for the very first time. Maybe years ago you placed your trust in Jesus, but you kind of forgot what it felt like to truly say, "God, I completely trust you with my life, with my day, with my future." So do it now. Lord, help us to fight fear with trust in you. I know there's fearful people in this room; help us to trust you so we can have the confidence born of the resurrection, knowing you have the last word, knowing you are always at work behind the scenes, knowing you will ultimately bring good in the long run. And I pray that we here at Twin Lakes are examples to our community of believers who move through life with a spirit not of fear, but a spirit of power, a spirit of love, and a spirit of a sound mind. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.