WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.640 You know, one of the hardest things about this whole present moment is all the uncertainty. 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:12.019 Because quite frankly, there's so much that we don't know about the future. 00:00:12.580 --> 00:00:14.439 We don't know how long this is going to last. 00:00:14.900 --> 00:00:17.920 We don't know when things are finally going to turn around. 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:21.140 Every time there's a prediction, that then gets revised. 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:25.780 We don't know yet the long-term impact of this on our economy. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:30.179 We don't know the impact that this will have on our way of life. 00:00:31.380 --> 00:00:36.700 And underneath all of this sits this fear of the unknown. 00:00:37.320 --> 00:00:39.820 Because things just feel different now. 00:00:40.480 --> 00:00:46.820 And one of the hard things about the fear of the unknown is it's the kind of fear that sits underneath a lot of other fears. 00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:50.460 It's sort of the fear behind our fears. 00:00:50.460 --> 00:00:56.700 And so the question that I want to talk about this morning is how we deal with that fear, the fear of the unknown. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:03.859 And I have found Psalm 121 to be a great source of encouragement over the last couple of weeks. 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:07.799 It's a great encouragement, but it's more than that. 00:01:08.359 --> 00:01:13.879 You know, in the Psalter, this psalm is considered part of the Psalms of Ascent. 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:24.179 These were prayers that pilgrims would either pray or sing as they made the long, dangerous journey to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. 00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:31.719 And it's a prayer that if you understand it, and if you pray it regularly in your life, 00:01:31.719 --> 00:01:42.039 it's the kind of prayer that will give you the strength to face the uncertainty that is an unavoidable part of life, 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:45.780 especially now in the midst of this coronavirus pandemic. 00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:51.239 And the reason it's able to do that is because it answers two fundamental questions about this fear. 00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:55.200 First, it helps us understand why we're afraid of the unknown. 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:56.599 Why are we afraid of the unknown? 00:01:56.599 --> 00:02:00.280 And then it shows us how to overcome that fear. 00:02:00.839 --> 00:02:02.579 So that's what I want to look at this morning. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:04.500 Why are we afraid of the unknown? 00:02:05.060 --> 00:02:07.019 And how do we then overcome that fear? 00:02:07.459 --> 00:02:08.840 Looking at Psalm 121. 00:02:08.959 --> 00:02:09.359 Let's pray. 00:02:10.539 --> 00:02:16.479 Lord, we thank you for your word, and we pray now that you would illuminate that word, 00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:24.019 that wherever we are this morning, as we sit in our homes, as we sit with our Bibles open, if we have them, Lord, 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:27.480 I pray that your Holy Spirit would minister to us wherever we are. 00:02:28.460 --> 00:02:30.900 Speak the words that we need to hear to our heart, Lord. 00:02:31.219 --> 00:02:35.080 And we pray that through your written word, we would come face to face with your living word, Jesus Christ. 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:36.900 And it's in his name that we pray. 00:02:37.700 --> 00:02:37.980 Amen. 00:02:39.460 --> 00:02:41.500 So why are we afraid of the unknown? 00:02:42.360 --> 00:02:48.120 As I said before, this was a prayer that pilgrims would pray or sing on their way to Jerusalem. 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:53.640 And if you look at it closely, you see that it reveals some of the common fears faced by pilgrims. 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:58.900 Verse 3, the pilgrim prays, he will not let your foot be moved. 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:00.759 This is a very practical prayer. 00:03:01.140 --> 00:03:03.900 It's a long and dangerous uphill journey to Jerusalem. 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:11.000 And part of the journey entails a 22-mile stretch of road that goes along the edge of a steep ravine. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:17.979 And so it was a very real fear that you might step on a loose stone, slip and fall and go tumbling down that ravine. 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:20.180 That was something that a lot of pilgrims were afraid of. 00:03:20.979 --> 00:03:24.000 Verse 5 says that the Lord is your keeper. 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:28.659 Another translation might be your guard or your guard against attack. 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:31.580 Bandits were a big problem on this trip. 00:03:31.699 --> 00:03:35.099 And so there were a lot of fears around being attacked by bandits. 00:03:35.780 --> 00:03:38.139 Verse 6 is curious. 00:03:38.139 --> 00:03:42.879 It says, the sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. 00:03:43.679 --> 00:03:46.399 Now being stricken by the sun is something we understand. 00:03:47.419 --> 00:03:51.839 Dehydration and heat can wear you down, make you sick or even kill you if you're not careful. 00:03:51.959 --> 00:03:53.119 So that was definitely a fear. 00:03:53.459 --> 00:04:04.439 But the idea of being moonstruck is rooted in the ancient belief that mental illness and emotional disturbance were caused by the moon or being exposed to moonlight. 00:04:04.739 --> 00:04:07.579 So this is where we get words like lunatic from. 00:04:07.580 --> 00:04:09.360 It's rooted in that ancient belief. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:13.020 And so these are all of the fears that these pilgrims would face. 00:04:13.100 --> 00:04:18.259 And so you can imagine a pilgrim preparing, packing to set out with their family on this long journey. 00:04:18.580 --> 00:04:21.780 And they're imagining being attacked. 00:04:21.900 --> 00:04:24.199 They're imagining falling down into that ravine. 00:04:24.300 --> 00:04:28.160 They're imagining being stricken by the sun and getting sick or dying. 00:04:28.300 --> 00:04:31.600 All of these fears are swirling around in their mind. 00:04:31.960 --> 00:04:33.660 And here's the point I want us to see. 00:04:33.660 --> 00:04:41.520 When we talk about the fear of the unknown, it's not actually a fear of the unknown. 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:47.640 It's not because we are afraid of things that we don't know, in other words. 00:04:48.140 --> 00:04:52.600 What we're actually afraid of is what we think we do know about the unknown. 00:04:52.700 --> 00:04:55.800 In other words, the unknown is simply a blank canvas. 00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:58.079 It's neither good nor bad. 00:04:58.160 --> 00:04:59.020 It just is. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.840 But our imaginations are really, really good at filling in the blanks. 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:10.340 And so we are able to imagine all kinds of scenarios playing out. 00:05:10.420 --> 00:05:14.160 And those imaginary futures are actually what we're afraid of. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:20.939 So the pilgrim imagines stepping on a loose stone and falling and imagines tumbling into that ravine. 00:05:21.280 --> 00:05:25.760 And that vivid image, that becomes the source of their fear. 00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:32.720 So for some of you, if you have a fear of public speaking, what you actually have is not a fear of public speaking. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:38.720 You have imagined a scenario where you are embarrassed or humiliated in front of a lot of people. 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:41.120 And that's the scenario that you're afraid of. 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:43.260 Some of us have a fear of flying. 00:05:43.400 --> 00:05:49.680 But a fear of flying is actually a fear of an imagined scenario where you're in a plane that goes down and crashes. 00:05:49.880 --> 00:05:51.100 And so that's what you're afraid of. 00:05:51.320 --> 00:05:54.680 Now this may sound very obvious to you, but it's actually a very important point. 00:05:55.280 --> 00:05:59.180 On one level, your brain is doing what it's supposed to do. 00:05:59.260 --> 00:06:04.620 It is looking ahead and foreseeing possible sources of danger so that you can keep yourself safe. 00:06:04.620 --> 00:06:14.000 The problem is, we're not always very good at telling the difference between what is possible and what is probable. 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:18.160 What technically could happen and what is likely to happen. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:21.300 We're not always good at telling the difference between those two kinds of danger. 00:06:21.699 --> 00:06:24.860 So for instance, I know a lot of people who are afraid of flying. 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:32.660 Every time they get on a plane, they feel the anxiety and they sweat and they grip their seat and they pray for it to be over as quickly as possible. 00:06:32.660 --> 00:06:34.840 Now, a lot of people have that fear. 00:06:36.200 --> 00:06:39.800 Technically, it's possible that you might die in a plane crash. 00:06:39.900 --> 00:06:45.100 But you know, the odds right now are about 1 in 5 million that that's actually going to happen. 00:06:45.180 --> 00:06:47.420 So it's possible, but it's not probable. 00:06:47.840 --> 00:06:53.920 On the other hand, walking down the street that you live on, your chances of dying are about 1 in 500. 00:06:54.540 --> 00:07:00.420 In other words, a lot more probable that something bad is going to happen walking down your street than it is getting in a plane. 00:07:00.420 --> 00:07:02.319 Another example is sharks. 00:07:02.420 --> 00:07:04.720 A lot of people are very afraid of sharks. 00:07:04.900 --> 00:07:09.460 And so they get in the ocean and you're looking around, especially if the water is kind of murky, you feel that anxiety. 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:16.720 In one year, there were roughly 14 people who were injured by sharks in the U.S. 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:19.600 So it's technically possible that that's going to happen. 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:24.439 But you know, in that same year, 43,000 people were injured by their own toilets. 00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:30.699 So it is far more likely that you're going to be injured going to the bathroom than you are getting into the ocean. 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:33.680 But see, our minds don't always get the difference. 00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:39.220 And in many of our minds, we have that vivid image of being attacked by a shark or going down in a plane. 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:42.180 And that's enough to convince us that we need to be afraid. 00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:48.319 So this is one problem and one way that things go wrong with our imaginations. 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:50.699 Add to that this problem. 00:07:51.540 --> 00:07:57.480 Your body does not know the difference between a real threat and an imagined threat. 00:07:58.060 --> 00:08:00.600 So the human body has a stress response. 00:08:00.699 --> 00:08:04.920 When you perceive a threat, your body is flooded with cortisol and adrenaline. 00:08:05.100 --> 00:08:07.620 And that jumpstarts your nervous system. 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:15.079 And then blood is sent to your major muscle group so that you can be ready to fight or to run depending on the situation. 00:08:15.219 --> 00:08:16.519 Now, that's a natural stress response. 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:18.039 That's what your body is supposed to do. 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:19.359 The problem is this. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.299 Your body can't tell whether it's a real threat or one that is just in your mind. 00:08:24.939 --> 00:08:33.000 And so we know from neurological research and brain imaging that when somebody imagines being in danger, their body responds in exactly the same way. 00:08:33.059 --> 00:08:34.759 So your body can't tell the difference. 00:08:35.199 --> 00:08:39.539 So if we put all this together, here's the problem when we face the unknown. 00:08:40.199 --> 00:08:44.779 We are very good at imagining very bad things happening. 00:08:44.779 --> 00:08:50.860 We convince ourselves that those things definitely are going to happen. 00:08:51.299 --> 00:08:54.659 And then our bodies respond as though they are happening. 00:08:55.559 --> 00:08:58.439 And you can see how this would cause lots of problems for us. 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:05.299 And so the question that we want to ask this morning is how do we overcome this tendency to assume the worst, believe it's definitely going to happen, 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:07.839 and trick our bodies into thinking it is happening? 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:12.580 And there are really two options that the psalm gives us. 00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:16.460 The first way of dealing with this fear is to look to the hills. 00:09:16.460 --> 00:09:19.259 When the psalmist says, 00:09:19.680 --> 00:09:24.040 I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? 00:09:24.900 --> 00:09:28.180 That's referring, at least in part, to the Canaanite religion. 00:09:28.680 --> 00:09:31.940 Now much of the Canaanite religion, which is very widespread during that time, 00:09:32.019 --> 00:09:34.580 much of that religion was practiced on the hilltops. 00:09:34.580 --> 00:09:39.639 You had a pantheon of gods and goddesses who might want to help you, 00:09:39.800 --> 00:09:43.960 or they might be angry at you, or they might be disinterested in you, 00:09:44.020 --> 00:09:47.000 or they might have fallen asleep, or they might be drunk. 00:09:47.400 --> 00:09:50.520 And so you had to climb as high as you could, 00:09:50.920 --> 00:09:52.759 and you had to do whatever you had to do, 00:09:53.020 --> 00:09:56.860 clang cymbals together, bang a gong, anything you had to do, 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:00.820 yell and shout and scream in order to get the attention of the gods. 00:10:00.820 --> 00:10:08.960 And so there were shrines and groves of trees that had been erected on these hilltops, 00:10:09.080 --> 00:10:13.140 and you had priests and priestesses who would actually live there all the time. 00:10:13.680 --> 00:10:19.760 And this religion was built around using spells and rituals and sacrifices 00:10:19.760 --> 00:10:25.580 to gain the attention of the gods and then coerce them or convince them to help you. 00:10:25.900 --> 00:10:27.140 That's what it was all about. 00:10:27.140 --> 00:10:30.340 And so if you're preparing for a trip, and you're thinking about that ravine, 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:33.399 and you're afraid you might fall on that 22-mile stretch of road, 00:10:33.540 --> 00:10:35.280 you might go up to one of these hilltops, 00:10:35.460 --> 00:10:39.000 and you might make a sacrifice or pay that priestess, 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:41.280 and they would cast a spell on your shoes, 00:10:41.379 --> 00:10:43.920 a spell of protection, of sure-footedness perhaps. 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:47.259 If you're afraid of sunstroke, you might go up to the hill 00:10:47.259 --> 00:10:51.280 and sacrifice to the sun god so that you would be protected from that, right? 00:10:51.420 --> 00:10:53.300 So this is how the religion worked. 00:10:53.299 --> 00:11:02.479 The Canaanite religion, in essence, dealt with anxiety by giving people the illusion of control. 00:11:03.179 --> 00:11:04.819 The illusion of control. 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:10.899 Now, it's human nature to want to have control over anything that we can have control over, 00:11:10.979 --> 00:11:14.439 and that's why this religion was so popular and so widespread. 00:11:15.019 --> 00:11:19.500 And it's interesting, not many of us would probably consider ourselves to be members of a Canaanite cult anymore, 00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:23.700 but that same tendency still resides in us. 00:11:24.220 --> 00:11:26.440 You know, a long time ago, I used to be a pole vaulter, 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:30.759 and before every vault, I had a kind of ritual that I would go through, 00:11:30.820 --> 00:11:32.639 a certain way that I would prepare to vault, 00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:36.340 and I had this weird superstitious anxiety that if I didn't do that ritual, 00:11:36.659 --> 00:11:38.320 the vault would go wrong in some way. 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:45.720 And, you know, these kinds of superstitious rituals are everywhere in the sports world. 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:49.000 And even though people on one level know that it's superstition, 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:52.720 on another level, if you try to get them to break their ritual or their habit, 00:11:52.940 --> 00:11:56.139 they're going to be very resistant to that because it's hardwired into us. 00:11:56.560 --> 00:12:02.759 But another way that I think a lot of us use or give in to this tendency to try to control the future 00:12:02.759 --> 00:12:04.500 is simply through information. 00:12:05.180 --> 00:12:08.820 We live in a society where we have access to so much information. 00:12:08.820 --> 00:12:13.980 We've made so many advances technologically and scientifically that it's easy to believe 00:12:13.980 --> 00:12:18.340 that if we just know enough, if we just have enough information, 00:12:18.760 --> 00:12:23.220 then we will be able to make the kinds of choices that lead to the outcomes that we want down the road. 00:12:23.300 --> 00:12:27.540 We'll be able to avoid all of the dangers if we just know enough. 00:12:27.920 --> 00:12:31.260 You know, it's amazing in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic 00:12:31.259 --> 00:12:35.879 to see how many articles are now coming out saying if we had only done this 00:12:35.879 --> 00:12:37.960 or if we had only not done that, 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:41.019 then none of the bad things that have happened would have happened. 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:45.279 And, you know, it's written by some guy in his basement. 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:50.819 And, you know, it's like, man, if only the entire world had just consulted this guy, 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:52.460 none of the bad things would have happened. 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:55.720 But in reality, we all know that that's simply not true. 00:12:55.819 --> 00:12:58.819 It's this illusion of control because the belief under that 00:12:58.820 --> 00:13:03.220 is the idea that if we had just known the right information and made the right choices, 00:13:03.400 --> 00:13:06.120 we could have prevented all of the bad things from happening. 00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:08.360 That's the illusion of control at work. 00:13:09.340 --> 00:13:13.360 The truth is, and this is a very hard truth to swallow, 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:16.440 we have no control over the future. 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:21.140 We have no control over the future. 00:13:21.920 --> 00:13:25.380 No matter how much we know, no matter how smart we are, 00:13:25.379 --> 00:13:30.759 no matter how hard we try, we simply cannot control what is going to happen. 00:13:31.340 --> 00:13:35.460 I think one of the benefits, and I use that term with all the caveats, 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:41.460 one of the benefits of this coronavirus epidemic is that I think for at least a little while, 00:13:41.639 --> 00:13:45.299 it has stripped away some of our illusion of control. 00:13:45.299 --> 00:13:51.099 You have many countries, some of the most powerful countries all around the world, 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:55.339 seemingly crippled overnight because of a virus. 00:13:56.179 --> 00:14:01.059 If that doesn't teach us how little control we have, I don't know what will. 00:14:01.459 --> 00:14:05.099 And so the truth about this Canaanite religion, the truth of the hills, 00:14:05.479 --> 00:14:07.500 the hills are full of lies. 00:14:08.579 --> 00:14:10.519 That illusion of control is simply that. 00:14:10.599 --> 00:14:11.159 It's an illusion. 00:14:11.159 --> 00:14:15.980 So to look to the hills for help, to look to anything that gives us that illusion of control, 00:14:16.319 --> 00:14:17.740 those are empty promises. 00:14:18.740 --> 00:14:23.919 And so that leaves us with only one other option of how to deal with our fear of the unknown, 00:14:24.279 --> 00:14:28.179 and that's the option that the psalmist chooses, and that is to look to the Lord. 00:14:30.259 --> 00:14:31.740 What is anxiety in a nutshell? 00:14:32.659 --> 00:14:33.519 I'll tell you. 00:14:34.419 --> 00:14:39.600 Anxiety in a nutshell is the act of imagining your future without God. 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:45.480 Anxiety is the act of imagining your future without God. 00:14:45.560 --> 00:14:47.139 Now just let that sink in for a minute. 00:14:48.759 --> 00:14:55.000 We imagine slipping and falling, and we can see that vividly, but God is utterly absent. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:15:04.440 We imagine that public embarrassment, or the plane crash, or something bad happening to our children. 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:11.519 We can imagine these things vividly, but in those images of the future, God is nowhere to be found. 00:15:12.059 --> 00:15:17.519 The assumption that we make when we envision these truths is God is utterly absent from the picture. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:24.299 And so what Psalm 121 does is it invites us to re-envision our future, 00:15:24.980 --> 00:15:28.360 but it invites us to re-envision our future, 00:15:29.079 --> 00:15:33.419 but it's a future that is filled with the presence of the Lord. 00:15:34.299 --> 00:15:37.679 It's filled with the knowledge that God is our maker, 00:15:38.199 --> 00:15:40.539 that God is the one who made heaven and earth. 00:15:40.539 --> 00:15:44.539 It's filled with the knowledge that God exists and lives in our past, 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:47.439 and our present, and our future. 00:15:48.079 --> 00:15:52.539 It's filled with the knowledge that unlike the Canaanite gods and goddesses, 00:15:53.199 --> 00:15:54.659 our God doesn't sleep. 00:15:55.159 --> 00:15:56.120 He doesn't slumber. 00:15:56.659 --> 00:15:58.099 He is always with you. 00:15:58.439 --> 00:15:59.980 He is always for you. 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:02.779 He is always pouring His love into your life. 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:06.079 His purposes are always unfolding before you. 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:12.160 And this psalm shows us how to respond to these fears that we feel. 00:16:13.100 --> 00:16:14.240 And the way I'll put it is this. 00:16:14.300 --> 00:16:17.080 It shows us how to pray God into our fears. 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:20.879 It shows us how to pray God into our future. 00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:22.759 The psalmist says, 00:16:22.920 --> 00:16:25.000 The Lord will not let my foot be moved. 00:16:25.800 --> 00:16:26.060 Right? 00:16:26.580 --> 00:16:28.879 He imagines the slipping and the falling, 00:16:29.020 --> 00:16:29.420 and then he says, 00:16:29.500 --> 00:16:32.020 But my God is there, and He will not let that happen. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:34.340 The Lord will guard me from attack. 00:16:34.340 --> 00:16:39.560 The Lord will be my shade and protect me from the sun and the moon. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:43.860 The Lord will keep my going out and my coming in forevermore. 00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:48.000 And the most powerful truth in this psalm is verse 7. 00:16:48.160 --> 00:16:50.440 Even when bad things happen, and they will, 00:16:51.280 --> 00:16:56.620 because the Bible never promises that bad things won't happen to people who believe in and follow Jesus. 00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:02.420 It teaches that in some ways life might actually be harder for you if you follow Jesus in this world. 00:17:02.419 --> 00:17:05.279 But what the Bible does say, and we see it in verse 7, 00:17:05.420 --> 00:17:08.059 is that the Lord is the keeper of our lives. 00:17:08.119 --> 00:17:09.759 And that word lives actually means souls. 00:17:09.899 --> 00:17:11.579 The Lord is the keeper of your soul. 00:17:12.500 --> 00:17:13.859 He's the keeper of your soul. 00:17:14.299 --> 00:17:16.279 Which means no matter what happens, 00:17:16.859 --> 00:17:19.359 if you entrust yourself to the Lord, 00:17:19.779 --> 00:17:21.899 if you entrust your life to the Lord, 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:23.700 then you belong to Him. 00:17:23.700 --> 00:17:26.759 And that means your future is secure in Him. 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:29.240 Because He has you. 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:32.420 And you ask, well, how can I know that for sure? 00:17:33.120 --> 00:17:34.980 And of course the answer to this question is, 00:17:35.220 --> 00:17:37.240 the cross of Jesus Christ. 00:17:37.980 --> 00:17:38.120 Right? 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:40.519 The cross is God's guarantee 00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:42.700 that He loves you 00:17:42.700 --> 00:17:45.080 and that He has secured your future. 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:48.240 So for those of us who put our faith in Jesus Christ 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:50.019 and who give our lives to Him, 00:17:50.379 --> 00:17:52.139 there is nothing that you can do 00:17:52.139 --> 00:17:54.819 that will ever separate you from God's love 00:17:54.819 --> 00:17:56.399 or God's purposes. 00:17:56.639 --> 00:17:58.539 And so no matter what happens down the road, 00:17:58.639 --> 00:18:00.720 we know that God's love is with us 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:02.579 and His purposes are unfolding 00:18:02.579 --> 00:18:04.519 as surely as they ever have been. 00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:07.339 So to bring this all together, 00:18:08.439 --> 00:18:11.460 we are facing extraordinary uncertainty right now. 00:18:12.079 --> 00:18:13.139 Extraordinary uncertainty. 00:18:13.140 --> 00:18:17.180 And if we respond to this moment of uncertainty 00:18:17.180 --> 00:18:20.560 by imagining our future without God, 00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:24.600 by assuming bad things are definitely going to happen, 00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:27.320 and then by pretending that we can actually 00:18:27.320 --> 00:18:29.540 exert control over that future, 00:18:30.140 --> 00:18:31.680 life's going to be a real struggle 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:32.780 for the foreseeable future. 00:18:34.080 --> 00:18:37.020 Instead, I want to invite you to do this 00:18:37.020 --> 00:18:38.400 beginning this week. 00:18:39.340 --> 00:18:42.820 I want you to first call to mind 00:18:42.819 --> 00:18:47.179 the future scenarios 00:18:47.179 --> 00:18:49.720 that cause you the most anxiety. 00:18:50.779 --> 00:18:52.299 Whatever those fears are, 00:18:52.399 --> 00:18:54.720 whether it's something happening to you 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:56.240 or to somebody that you love, 00:18:56.539 --> 00:18:58.419 whether it's embarrassment or physical harm 00:18:58.419 --> 00:19:00.559 or getting sick or whatever the case may be, 00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:01.839 I want you to call to mind 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:03.279 those future scenarios 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:04.939 that cause you the most anxiety, 00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:06.240 the things that keep you up at night, 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:07.279 the things that wake you up 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:08.700 in the early hours of the morning. 00:19:08.700 --> 00:19:10.019 I want you to call those to mind. 00:19:10.019 --> 00:19:11.500 Get them vividly in your mind. 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:13.640 And then, one by one, 00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:16.759 I invite you to use this psalm 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:19.059 to pray God into your fears, 00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:22.259 to pray God into your future, 00:19:22.700 --> 00:19:24.700 to re-envision those scenarios 00:19:24.700 --> 00:19:26.840 but filled with the presence of God 00:19:26.840 --> 00:19:29.000 and filled with all of the things 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:30.480 that this psalm tells us 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:31.400 about who God is 00:19:31.400 --> 00:19:32.960 and why we can trust Him. 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:38.160 So, envision feeling so loved by God 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:41.780 that even if you experience embarrassment, 00:19:42.800 --> 00:19:43.960 even if you're publicly humiliated 00:19:44.700 --> 00:19:46.360 and those worst fears come true, 00:19:46.759 --> 00:19:48.460 it doesn't really matter to you 00:19:48.460 --> 00:19:50.540 because you know that God loves you 00:19:50.540 --> 00:19:51.680 and that's all that matters. 00:19:52.380 --> 00:19:55.120 Envision feeling so secure in God 00:19:55.120 --> 00:19:58.640 that you can accept whatever future comes 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:01.100 and that you will simply embrace it 00:20:01.100 --> 00:20:02.120 and know that it is part 00:20:02.120 --> 00:20:03.240 of God's unfolding plan. 00:20:04.120 --> 00:20:06.560 Envision feeling so confident in the Lord 00:20:06.560 --> 00:20:11.840 that even death no longer holds any fear for you, 00:20:12.080 --> 00:20:13.780 that it's something that you can embrace 00:20:13.780 --> 00:20:15.620 as just part of the journey 00:20:15.620 --> 00:20:17.320 into the presence of the Lord. 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:20.040 And if at any point along the way 00:20:20.040 --> 00:20:21.340 as you're praying these things, 00:20:21.420 --> 00:20:24.780 if at any point a voice begins to speak doubt, 00:20:24.900 --> 00:20:28.180 if you begin to doubt God's character 00:20:28.180 --> 00:20:29.759 or His love or His power, 00:20:30.660 --> 00:20:31.820 simply look to the cross. 00:20:33.100 --> 00:20:34.539 Look to the cross which stands 00:20:34.539 --> 00:20:35.840 as a monument in history 00:20:35.840 --> 00:20:38.100 to remind us that no matter what happens, 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:39.840 nothing can ever separate us 00:20:39.840 --> 00:20:42.000 from the love of God in Jesus Christ. 00:20:43.240 --> 00:20:43.880 Let's pray. 00:20:45.259 --> 00:20:47.060 Lord, we thank You for Your Word 00:20:47.060 --> 00:20:48.660 and we pray now that Your Holy Spirit 00:20:48.660 --> 00:20:51.000 would do what no human wisdom or words can do 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:53.060 and that is to take these truths 00:20:53.060 --> 00:20:54.580 and press them into our hearts 00:20:54.580 --> 00:20:56.820 so that when we look into our future, 00:20:56.819 --> 00:20:58.139 when we look into the unknown, 00:20:58.519 --> 00:21:00.039 we see it not empty 00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:02.539 where we're alone fending for ourselves, 00:21:02.679 --> 00:21:04.339 but our vision of the future 00:21:04.339 --> 00:21:06.099 is filled with the presence 00:21:06.099 --> 00:21:09.179 and the love and the power of God. 00:21:09.619 --> 00:21:11.480 That love and that power and the truth 00:21:11.480 --> 00:21:12.759 that we see put on display 00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:14.599 in the cross of Jesus Christ. 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:16.079 We pray this, Lord, for our good 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:18.259 and ultimately for Your glory, Lord. 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:19.199 Amen.