A Different Perspective Official Podcast

When we're afraid, it seems as though nothing anyone else says or does can make a difference.  But – well, what if God has something to say?  And what if it does actually make a difference? Would it be worth listening to?
You know what I've noticed about those times when I am truly, truly afraid. It seems that nothing anybody says or does can make a difference. When you're going through some really tough times. And you just don't know what the future holds. And everything looks bleak and grim. Every eventuality we imagine has a bad outcome. Because when we're afraid, it seems to me that we lose hope. And hope is being able to see into the future and believe that something good is going to happen. A place without hope is a dark and dangerous place indeed. And yet that's where we so often find ourselves in life.
Yesterday on the program we saw how one of Israel's kings, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, was faced with overwhelming odds. A massive army. Three nations coming against him at the same time. There was no way that his small army could ever win that battle against this mighty enemy. No way. Or was there?
Now old Josh, he didn't panic. Nor was he frozen with fear. He went to God and told God just the way it was. 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 12:
O God we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you.
There you have it. Well, right now, we're going to take a look at what happened next. Did God respond? Did He? And if He did, did it make any difference? Because, as I said right at the beginning, so often when we're afraid, it seems that nothing anybody else says or does ever makes a difference.
Well let's have a look. We're going to read the next part of the story. It begins in 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 13:
Meanwhile all of Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of..." (a whole bunch of lineage).
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, one of the Levites in the middle of the assembly. He said, 'Listen all of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat. Thus says the Lord to you. Do not fear or be dismayed at the geat multitude. For the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow, go down against them' 
'They will come up the ascent of Ziz and you will find them at the end of the valley before the wilderness of Jeruel. This battle is not for you to fight. Take your positions, stand still and see the victory of the Lord on your behalf O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them and the Lord will be with you.'
Then Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground and all of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshipping Him. And the Levites stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.
They rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Listen to me O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God and you will be established. Believe in His prophets.' When he had taken council with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and to praise Him in holy splendor. As they went out before the army saying, 'Give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love endures forever.'
If you didn't know better you would say they're nuts. I mean, right in the middle of this frightening time, God ups and speaks through this man. The Spirit of God falls on this man, Jahaziel. It wasn't such a funny name to them back then. And what does God say?
Do not be afraid. Do not be dismayed at this great multitude. For the battle is not yours, but God's.
Again, in verse 17:
This battle is not for you to fight. Take your positions, stand still and see the victory of the Lord on your behalf. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them and the Lord will be with you.
Now I want to just think through that for a bit. Because this is so important. This is the crux of the whole story. You see, we think in our human thinking. We've always been taught to be self-reliant. God helps those who help themselves, right? But here, God is saying exactly 180 degrees the opposite.
This nation of Judah. God's chosen people. The remnant of Israel. The rump if you like. These people who've put their faith in their God against overwhelming odds. In fact they had nowhere else to go. They are facing certain, absolute annihilation.
Remember, we're not talking about some football match here. This is not like your team annihilating my team on the weekend and on Monday morning we talk about it. This is complete death and destruction. So they turn to God with fear in their hearts. That's what it said right at the beginning. It said:
Jehoshaphat was afraid.
And just like you and I would be. But he set himself to seek the Lord and he proclaimed a fast through all Judah and they waited on God. They could have panicked. They could have been immobilised with fear. But instead, he waited on God and God spoke. And God said, "This is my battle and not yours."
We don't expect that do we? Oh sure, we expect God to do it for other people but not for us. Let me give you an example. You're married. Your wife or your husband seems to have drifted away from you. You long for them. You yearn to be close. But it doesn't matter how much you try or what you say or do, it just doesn't happen. You can see your soul mate drifting away from you and from God and you start thinking the unthinkable in your heart.
This is going to end in divorce. How do you respond? Panic. Frozen in fear. Start behaving badly yourself. Or do you set yourself to seek God, to enquire of Him, to discover that what God really wants to say to you is:
This battle is not for you to fight. Take your position. Stand still and see the victory of the Lord on your behalf. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out and the Lord will be with you.
Come on! This is where the rubber hits the road. And look, look at how Judah and the King Jehoshaphat responded to this incredible message from God. Did they scoff in disbelief? Did they have a Church council meeting to debate the matter? How did they respond?
Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground and all of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.
And they all sang. They went out to meet this massive army, singing God's praises. Come on! This is where it's at.
God is a mighty God and He's a loving God. And when we go and enquire of Him deep within our fear, He'll take charge. He fights the battles we can't fight.
And sometimes it's not about defeating some enemy out there. No, sometimes He has to do a work of grace in our hearts to change us and heal us. So often we think we know what the answer should be but actually we haven't a clue. So often we plan this victory or that. But when we put it in His hands, His victory and His outcome are so perfect.
We don't have time right now but if you read on in this chapter, 2 Chronicles chapter 20, you will discover that God won a mighty victory against the impossible enemy that day. And God's chosen people just stood there and watched. They didn't have to lift a finger. It was God's battle and God's victory.
He wants to do that sometimes in our lives. And when we're racing around panicking or when we've closed our ears, frozen in fear, we miss out on that. On that day, God's chosen people discovered that the battle truly belonged to their God.

We've all heard someone scream out "Don't Panic" – it's normally when they're panicking. But panic, as natural a reaction as it may be to fear – panic is pretty useless. And it burns up a whole bunch of energy!
In this day and age, one of the things that they teach us is to be self-reliant. To have confidence in our own abilities. Well, it's okay to a point I guess. But what happens when the situation we're in or the circumstances we face are so far beyond our own abilities to deal with them?  That any notion of self-reliance is completely ridiculous. I mean, what happens when the tsunami hits our lives? What do we do when the enemy that gathers around us, completely outnumbers and outguns us? What do we do?
And this isn't some theoretical exercise. It's life. It's my life and it's your life. Because this happens. It's real.
There are many times, in our lives, when the enemy, whoever or whatever that is. When the enemy is so much bigger than our ability to survive.
It happens in families. It happens in work places. And it happens in our hearts.
When depression hits for no good reason. When a loved one is taken in their prime and the grief overwhelms us. It happens when retrenchment hits us. When the economy takes a nose dive. When there isn't enough food to feed the family. When sickness strikes.
This is life. It's real life. Let me ask you something. When the enemy is so much bigger and so much stronger than anything you could ever handle, what do you do?
Well, some people panic and run around in ever decreasing circles. And that is a waste of their precious energy. I mean, panicking takes a lot of energy. You've seen it. I've seen it. We've both been there.
Some people, they pull over and stop. They're immobilised by fear. That's what happens you know. But neither of those things cut the mustard. Neither of them help. Running around like a headless chook is exhausting. And wallowing in self-pity is destructive. What do you do?
I want to introduce you today to one of the kings in Israel's history. Actually he was the king of a couple of the tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin. His name was Jehoshaphat. That's a long name but he was one of the good guys. And there was a time when he was confronted with an enemy that was way, way beyond his ability to fight. Have a listen. This story comes from the book of 2nd Chronicles beginning at chapter 20:
After this the Moabites and the Ammonites and with them, some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat for a battle. Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, 'A great multitude is coming against you from Edom, far from beyond the sea. Already they are at En Gedi.' Jehoshaphat was afraid.
I just want to establish here that Josh was human just like you and me. Not some super human king. Armies were coming against him. He was completely out numbered. This was a life and death situation and he was afraid. He's just one of us but it was what he did in his fear that made all the difference. He didn't let fear immobilise him. He didn't get into a flap and a panic. Have a listen. We'll read on in 2 Chronicles, chapter 20:
Jehoshaphat was afraid. He set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord. From all the towns of Judah they came to seek the Lord. Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem.
In the house of the Lord before the new court and said, 'God of our ancestors, are you not God in heaven? Do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In your hand a power and might so that no-one is able to withstand you. Do you not, O God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people of Israel and give it forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham? They have lived in it and in it they have built your sanctuary. If disaster comes upon us, the sword of judgement or pestilence or famine, we will stand before this house O God and before you. For your name is in this house and cry to you in our distress and you will hear and save.'
'See now, the people of Amon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt and whom they avoided and did not destroy. They reward us now by coming to drive us out of your possession that you have given us to inherit. God, will you not execute judgement against them? For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you.'
In the face of overwhelming odds, Jehoshaphat turned to God. Sometimes that's the only way. By the way that God can get our attention. I'd like to tell you that I first turned to God because I was wise and loving and prudent and understood that Jesus was the Son of God. But that would be lying. I turned to God because I was facing overwhelming odds. That's what did it for me.
Now a king is supposed to have all the answers. A king like Josh should have a powerful army and contingency plans based on a detailed threat assessment. He should have been self-reliant. But listen again to what Josh says when he's praying to God:
O our God. Will you not execute judgement upon them? For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do but our eyes are upon you.
I really relate to this story. When I stepped out of a secure, well paid job as a consultant into full-time ministry. It was leaving security behind to serve God. And I cannot begin to tell you how many times, since then, I've been in that place that Jehoshaphat and his people were in. I started out with this naive notion that if I was going to go about God's work it would have to be easy. And yet, so many times people and circumstances have conspired to be against God's work.
Every couple of years our board gets together to do some strategic planning. That's good. It's important. It always looks good on paper. And then, it seems that all hell breaks loose. That's what's going on here against Jehoshaphat and Judah.
Remember they're God's chosen people. They're in God's Promised Land. Now Jehoshaphat is a king who honoured God. By all accounts, he is wise and prudent and competent. But in the face of overwhelming odds, he admits to God, 'I don't know what to do. All my plans. All my strategies. All my contingency plans. I don't know what to do.'
So what was his solution? How did he cope with this? In the same breath he said,
... but our eyes are on you God.
I wonder sometimes, when I see people who profess to believe in God, running around in panic. Wasting so much of their energy. Complaining and worrying and being afraid. It takes a lot of energy to be afraid, do you realise? I wonder if they spend even half that amount of energy having their eyes set on God, how much better off they'd be.
You and I, we can't help but be afraid. Jehoshaphat was afraid. It's a natural human reaction. I'm not here to tell you somehow to pretend that you're not afraid when fear is rocking you to the core. But it's what we do when fear strikes that makes all the difference.
You can panic and burn energy. You can freeze and be immobilised. And that's probably the end of you. Or we can just look at God and say, "You know something Lord, this is so huge. I don't know what to do but my eyes are on you. I'm just going to wait on you. I don't know what you're going to do. I don't even know if you're going to show up. But my eyes are on you."
Tomorrow we're going to come back to see what happened. Did God do anything? Did God say anything? Or was Jehoshaphat's faith just a fantasy? See, that's the question that we each have to face when we dare to look to God from the midst of our fear.

It's great for people to tell you that when you're afraid God says, "Do Not Be Afraid." That's great. But, well, when I am afraid, what do I do with that feeling? How do I make it go away? How do I get back on an even keel?
Fear is a subject that frankly, we don't much like talking about. But that's exactly what we're talking about on the program this week. Because fear, fear is something that we all go through. You know when there's that 800 pound gorilla in the room. It's hard, it's incredibly hard to believe that God is bigger than the gorilla. Of course He is but it just doesn't feel like that when that gorilla is so up close. And the hardest thing, I think, in overcoming fear in life is actually getting to that point where we have a high level of confidence in God. Where we put our confidence and our trust in this God who says, "Do not be afraid." Instead of in the gorilla, who's so here and now.
Where we put our confidence in who God is. What He's done. His might and His power and His sovereignty. They all sound great in theory. God created the universe. He's all-powerful, great. That's the theory but what about in practice? What about when the rubber hits the road? Then what?
See, I used to think that it was up to me and I guess, in part, it is but not completely. Just as well. You and I, we're human. I can't conjure up confidence. I can't take this theory about who God is and let the theory wipe away the fear. Because fear is real. I need something more than just theory. I need more than promises on a piece of paper.
Yesterday on the program, we looked at what God had to say to His chosen people, Israel, when they were afraid. They'd lost their Promised Land, they were slaves in Babylon, in exile. Yeah, God's chosen people. It sort of seemed that God had deserted them. When it feels like the Babylonians, who after all were the dominant world power, well it felt like they were more powerful than the God of Israel.
So God, as we saw yesterday, points out creation to them. The heavens, the trillions of stars. The stars that the Babylonians, by the way, worshipped. He said, "I made them. I made the heavens and the earth. Don't you think I can save you from the Babylonians?"
You see, for the Israelites, the Babylonians were the 800 pound gorilla in the room. It was seemingly impossible. And if it were left up to the Israelites to work up the courage to believe that God would save them from the Babylonians, it was never going to happen. They didn't have that much faith. They were slaves, they were in exile for 70 years. No, God had to do something. God had to help them. God had to change their hearts and touch them deep inside. And fortunately, that's exactly what God had planned to do.
He didn't want to leave it up to them and here and now, He doesn't want to leave it up to us either. He wants us to actually experience His peace. Not our strength. Not some confidence or peace that we wave up with a magic wand. But a peace and a strength that come, only, from God.
Let's pick up the rest of the story. We began in chapter 40 of Isaiah yesterday and we'll begin at verse 28:
Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn't faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
Great, there it is again - the theory but now, watch what comes next. In Isaiah chapter 40, verse 29:
God gives power to the faint. He strengthens the powers. Even youths will faint and be weary and the young will fall exhausted. But those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength. They'll mount up with wings like eagles. They'll run and not be weary. They'll walk and not be faint.
Do you see the point? The power and the strength, where do they come from? Do I conjure them up? Do I somehow magically work hard enough to be confident? No. God gives power to the faint. God strengthens the powerless. See, even young people will faint and be weary. Even the strong will fall exhausted. But, and here's the but, here's the glorious, wondrous, powerful "but":
But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not grow faint.
You know what it means to wait? When we wait, you know when we're in a tough place. When we're afraid and scared and uncomfortable. You know what we want to do? We want to grumble. We, I got to tell you, we want to grumble.
'God, what are you doing? Why are you letting me go through this? Can't you deal with this? Look at that person over there, they're doing all the wrong things and you're blessing him.' We can find so many things to grumble about can't we? That's not the sort of waiting that God is talking about here, you know:
But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.
You know what that word "wait" means? It doesn't mean to wait with a bad attitude. It doesn't mean to wait with grumbling in our hearts and on our lips. It means to wait expectantly. To wait on God with the expectation that He is who He says He is. That He will do what He says He's going to do. To wait there right in the middle of our fear with the 800 pound gorilla in the room and say, "You know something, I can't do anything about my slavery in Babylon. I can't over throw the Babylonians. I can't do anything and God seems like a million miles away. But I'm just going to wait here expecting God to do something. Expecting God to show up. I know other people will tell me I'm a fool for doing that. I know it's not rational. I know it's not logical. But God's word says that":
Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not grow faint
Right with our emotions on that roller coaster ride. With our enemies around us. With our hearts cast down. To wait with an expectation somewhere deep inside that God's going to act. That God's going to show up.
And you know, I've been in those places so many times and it invariably doesn't feel good. It's easy to listen to some guy with a smooth voice on the radio and think, "Well it's okay for him. You know, he's in a nice safe radio studio. And it's nice and clean and clinical. And, what does he know?"
No, I've been in those tough places. I've wept over this scripture and waited and it never feels wonderful and spiritual. It always feels hard. But God means to do what He says He's going to do. Who knows? Will God give us victory over our enemies or not? I don't know.
More Christians have been martyred in the 20th century than in the 2000 years before that combined. We all die sometime. Is He going to deal with this cancer or let it take its course? I don't know.But there's one thing I know. God is saying,
Do not be afraid.
Do not be afraid.
God gives us His peace and His strength when we wait expectantly on Him. It doesn't matter how big or ugly or bad the enemy is. It doesn't matter how fearful we are. Why? Because He gives us His peace. That's the promise.
My friend, do not be afraid. Let your confidence rest on God Himself. And then, let Him do the rest.

You know I've heard all the theory – you don't have to be afraid – because God is in that place with you. Hmm. That's the theory. But how do I know – how do I know that I can rely on Him to be there and to be on my side and to act? Well?
Fear is something that, quite frankly, we don't much want to talk about. And yet it's something that's so very real for so many people in this world. We don't want to admit, to the rest of the world, that we're afraid. And so we kind of put on this brave face as though everything's fine. But on the inside, fear can be eating away like a cancer. So often it's the case that the things we used to place our confidence in, they're not working anymore.
People place their faith in all sorts of things. Their stock portfolio, until the stock market takes a dive. People place their faith in relationships until those relationships fail. And so we lose confidence and when we lose confidence, the deep rot of fear sets into our hearts.
Well truly I tell you, God wants to deal with that so decisively in our lives. Now that doesn't mean that we're not going to go through things and situations and challenges that aren't scary. Of course we are. That's life. But God's plan is that, when we do, that we'll be ready. That our confidence will be in Him.
Imagine a life where these times of fear are replaced with a quiet confidence in God Himself. That's His plan. That's why He keeps saying to us:
Do not be afraid.
Us being afraid falls so far short of His plan to fill us with His peace. That's why I really encourage you to stick with me over these next few minutes as we discover how to live out God's ideal of not being afraid.
I was talking with a friend recently. Great guy, one of "nature's gentlemen" as the saying goes. He's kind and considerate and competent. He's just a delight. I've worked with him about 15 years but over the last few years our paths have headed off into different directions. Now I had cause to call him about something. Expecting to hear his cheerful, bouncy voice on the other end of the phone. But what I discovered was a shell of the man I once knew.
His world had fallen apart. His family was gone, his career seemed over. It was an incredibly difficult and painful time for him. He said, "I'm sitting on a beach at the moment, wondering what, if anything, the rest of my life holds."
Now none of us want to have the stuffing ripped out of us. But you know something, it happens to all of us at some point. It doesn't matter who we are, where we live, what we believe. And you know, I've heard some preachers preach as though, "Well if you believe in God, bad things won't happen to you." That's a load of rubbish. Bad things happen to God's people too. In fact, sometimes especially they happen to God's people, they just do.
Take Israel, God's chosen people. They found themselves in this scary, fearful place. They'd been in slavery, exiled in Babylon for the best part of 3 generations. It's a long time. Only a handful of their elders can ever remember living in God's Promised Land – Jerusalem.
So what does God have to say to these people who are cowering in fear under the yoke of slavery? Have a listen. It comes from the Old Testament, the Book of Isaiah, chapter 41, beginning at verse 8:
But you Israel, my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend. You whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, 'You are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off. Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you up with my victorious right hand.'
See the first thing that God does is He reminds them of His promises to Abraham. When Abraham stood in that Promised Land, centuries before, this is what God promised him. Genesis chapter 15, beginning at verse 18:
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, 'To your descendants I give this land. From the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates – the land of the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites.'
And all the other little vegemites. God gave that land to Abraham and his descendants. It was God's promise. God had chosen them and had promised them the land. So God had gathered them from the ends of the earth and he said:
I will not cast you off, I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
The whole thing that God relies on here, in talking with His people and their fear and their despair. Is not in who they are or how strong they are or how clever they are. No, He's saying to them, "look at who I am. Look at my promise. I know it's tough. I know you're confused. I know it's scary but I am your God. I am with you. You are my servant. I have chosen you. I took you from the ends of the earth. Don't be afraid."
But how does that help them? See isn't He the God who failed them 70 years earlier? Okay, so He sends them some prophet and he says, "don't be afraid' but He's got more. He's got so much more. See He said, 'it's not just my promises, have a look at who I am."
And just in that chapter before, we were looking at Isaiah chapter 41, just in the chapter before, He tells them who He is. He says:
To whom will you compare me? To an idol? A bit of mulberry wood made by an artisan? Don't you realise?  Haven't you heard? Hasn't it been told to you from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and it's inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
Who stretches out the heavens like curtain and spreads them like a tent to live in. Who brings princes to nothing and makes rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them and they wither and the tempest carries them off like stubble.'
'To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?' says God the Holy One. 'Lift up your eyes. Look and see who created these stars. Who brings them out by their hosts and numbers them and calls them by name because He is great in strength? Mighty and power, not one is missing.'
'Why do you say O Israel, My way is hidden from the Lord and my right is discarded from my God? Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn't grow faint or weary.'
This is powerful stuff: Don't you get it? He's saying, 'I'm the God who created the whole 'shoot and match'. See those trillions of stars up there? I created them, I make them come out each night. I am so much bigger than your circumstances. It makes absolute sense for you to put your confidence in me.
I have been in those fearful places in my life. And you know what happens? All you can see it the dirty great big 800 pound gorilla in the room. All you can see are the people or the circumstances that cause us to fear and that's human.
We don't know what the future holds. We imagine all the bad things are going to happen at the same time. And then, I don't want to get preachy but I've discovered in my life, that when God steps into my situation, no matter how scary it is. When He steps in and whispers in my heart:
Do not be afraid.
He means it.
Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
My hunch is that today, today He means to whisper those words into your heart and mind.
Do not be afraid.

You know something – the world can be a scary place. We all travel through times when fear eats away inside and it's right in the middle of those times, that we need to know what to do.
I don't know about you but as I look around, it seems to me that the world can be a scary place. Take spiders and snakes for instance. Depending on where you live in the world, they're dangerous or they're not.
Here in Australia we are seriously over-represented in the top ten list of the worlds most venomous creatures. So growing up as a child I had a good reason to be afraid of them. And still today, the idea of a spider crawling into my bed. Well it's one of the scariest thoughts that I can come up with.
Let me tell you a funny story. One of the most venomous snakes on the planet is called the Death Adder. Good name huh? When I was training to be an officer in the army, we had not only Australian students but New Zealand students. And if you know anything about New Zealand, you will know they don't have venomous snakes at all.
And we were training and we were doing a grenade practice. So we were down in the bunker. And one of the New Zealanders went up, out of the bunker, to throw his grenade. And while he did, we found a dead Death Adder. So we put it down right where he had to sit down. So when he sat down, when he came back, he saw it and I tell you, it was so funny. His legs were going before his backside was up off the seat, running out of the bunker. Terrible stuff isn't it? But there you go.
We can laugh but the world can be a scary place. Especially with friends like me.
That was a long time ago, I have to say. I was young and stupid then.
So this week we're starting a new series on the program that's called, "Do Not Be Afraid". There's a reason for that. There are lots of people in this world who spend much of their lives living in fear.
Sometimes it's because they're living in a war zone. I mean there are plenty of people today, listening, who know that only too well. There are people in the Democratic Republic of Congo for instance. And there are parts there where there's war raging right now. There are some people, sitting in their homes, listening to this program today, wondering whether or not they're going to see tomorrow or next week or next year.
Other times, life threatening things happen. You have a health scare. The morning I sat down to prepare this message was the morning of the funeral of a good friend of mine. He was just a few years older than me and he died suddenly of a heart attack.
It's easy to be afraid of things. And when we're afraid it rocks our confidence. And yet other people, they just kind of live life with a real sense of dread. Always something there for us to dread. Always something lurking out there that we can be afraid of.
For me, honestly, if I allowed it, I could be afraid of quite a few things. There are a few things in my life right now that could cause me fear. I mean this ministry that I'm involved in at Christianityworks. It's a global media ministry. We're just a small team of people and we don't know where the funding's going to come from to do all we have to do over this next year. We just don't.
So you either live in fear or you live in faith. If God doesn't provide that funding, we'll fall flat on our faces. That's the stark reality. And that's the thing, it doesn't matter who we are or where we live, we can live in fear. And that fear can rob us of life itself. And yet, time and time and time again, you read God's word and these are the words from God, that He speaks to His people. He says:
Do not be afraid.
And He utters them, invariably, right at the time when the people He's talking with have every reason to be afraid. The people and the circumstances that are confronting them, conspiring against them.
We experience fear too and yet God wades in and says: "Do not be afraid."
Now if God doesn't want me to be afraid, when I have every reason to be afraid. You know something, I want to have a piece of His brand of confidence, don't you think? I mean, think about it. What's the point of God saying, "Do not be afraid" when we have no reason to fear. It's right in the middle of fear that we need His brand of confidence. I definitely want that, how about you?
Well, how can we have that confidence? That's a good question. That's what today's program is about. That's what this whole week is about. It's about discovering, right in the middle of where we live. Right in the middle of all the stuff that goes on in our lives, how not to be afraid.
So I invite you to come on a journey with me this week. And we're going to start that journey with an account of a time when God's chosen people, Israel, were very afraid. They had every reason to be afraid.
They'd been living in the Promised Land for several hundred years and then, all of a sudden. Because they were struggling with God. They were worshipping idols and other God's. Eventually God lost His patience. And in 586 BC, the Babylonians, the world power at the time, the dominant power, invaded Jerusalem. They destroyed the place. They destroyed the temple, the place where God's presence dwelt. And they took God's people back into slavery, to Babylon.
Now talk about a crisis of confidence. Think about it. God makes all these promises. To Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob. And then, when Israel are in slavery in Egypt, He sends them Moses and He does amazing miracles. The whole Red Sea thing, the exodus through the desert for 40 years. Everything, and got them finally to the land that God had promised to Abraham centuries before.
And once they got into the Promised Land, under the leadership of Joshua. They fought battle after battle against nation after nation that was bigger and stronger than Israel. And yet, God was with His chosen people and they took the land that God had promised to them.
And now, now all of a sudden, Babylon wins. God's own temple's destroyed. Where's God? What happened? Is the king of Babylon stronger than our God? Are the Babylonian God's stronger than our God?
The Israelites had a loss of confidence. And when we lose confidence, we get afraid. It's a big deal. I mean, you look at share holder confidence, consumer confidence. That feeling when you go to sleep at night, having that falling sensation. You know, you wake up in a panic and you're grabbing onto the bed.
Confidence is being able to, to trust the earth beneath our feet. And people trust the stock market, they trust the plane they're flying in, they trust their governments, they trust whatever. And then it's like things get pulled out from under your feet and you lose confidence and panic and fear set in. Because we're no longer safe, we're no longer able to trust what we've always trusted.
That's where Israel was. They had a complete loss of confidence in their God. He was punishing them but they didn't see it that way. It's like they were flying along, in a plane, at 32,000 feet above the ground and all of a sudden, all of the engines got switched off. Panic and fear and fair enough too.
So what does God say to them in the middle of their fear and panic? In Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10:
Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
I often wonder, how can He say that? How can God bowl up to us in the middle of our fear and circumstances where it's logical and reasonable and human for us to be afraid and say:
Do not be afraid.
How can He do that? Well, that's what we're going to be looking at over the rest of this week on the program. We're going to take a look at fear, well ... from a different perspective.