Fear & Hope - Jace Henderson

Welcome to the official podcast of the Church

of Christ Wheeler area. We're so glad that you've

tuned in for today's message. Whether you're

on your morning commute or if you're relaxing

at home, we're here to share the strength and

truth of God's Word with our community. If you're

in the neighborhood, we'd love to meet you in

person. Come see us at 1500 South Allen L. Bean

Boulevard right here in Wheeler, Texas. We gather

every Sunday morning at 1030 a .m. and in the

afternoon at 230 p .m. We meet again on Wednesdays

at 7 p .m. Right now, let's open our Bibles together

and dive into today's sermon. You know, this

world presents many challenges for us, especially

as God's people. There are things that we don't

like that occur in this world. There are things

about our government we don't like. There are

things about society we don't like. There are

things about pop culture that we don't like.

And that's because they stand in direct contradiction

to what we believe, which is God's Word. But

it goes beyond that. There are multiple wars

going on in this world. There's just a lot to

worry about. And we as a people have so many

things coming at us at any given time. We have

all of those things. And then we have all of

these things in the news that come toward us

and then we have all of the things in our society

that comes toward us. It's a lot to digest and

it's a lot to process. Where do we spend our

time? Where do we spend our effort? Do we seek

out to find things that give us hope? Or do we

spend our time looking at things that help us

grow fears within ourselves? And that's the question.

Are we cultivating a life that is built on hope,

or do we keep going back to that same thing that

gives us those fears that keep cropping up in

our lives? You know, if you look at social media,

what we know about social media is if there's

something that you like to read about or something

like that, it's gonna keep feeding that. And

so if I'm looking at these things that give me

fear in my life, it's gonna keep showing things

that cause fear. And we have to recognize that

and know that, that those things are what this

world has to offer us. It's not what God wanted

in our lives. He did not expect us to be a people

of fear. Quite the opposite. He gives us hope

through His Son, and that's the life that He

wanted us to have. A life of hope. Fear as we

know is an unpleasant often strong emotion caused

by anticipation of awareness of danger anxious

concern Now we look at that and we often think

well fear is must be physical things not so In

our case many of times. It's not a fear of physical

harm It's more of a fear of what may happen in

our lives if some adverse event occurs And that

can be something as simple as you're afraid you're

going to fail a math exam. That causes us to

have fear in our lives. And that's not what we

want. On the other hand, hope is the desire of

a company by expectation of or belief in fulfillment

or success. Now we look at that and we think,

okay, I want to hope for certain things. I can

hope for certain things, but unless there's an

expectation, or belief in fulfillment, that's

actually not a hope. I have no hope in certain

things. I have no hope of becoming president

in the next 10 minutes. It's just not going to

happen. But if I have hope in things that are

able to be accomplished, then I start setting

goals, I start setting milestones toward that

hope to help me accomplish that thing. So as

we go through here, keep those two in mind. That

hope should have an expectation of success. In

Proverbs 10 and 24, it says, the fear of the

wicked, it shall come upon him, but the desire

of the righteous shall be granted. You know,

fear gone unchecked will consume us. It'll take

everything we have, all of our emotion. It'll

take all of our energy. It'll take our motivation

to do things. It'll take all of that from us

if it's gone unchecked. And too many times we've

seen in the past in history different events

that have occurred where people gave into that

type of stuff. You know, one of the lesser known

events like that was back in 2012. The end of

the Mayan calendar. It was known as the Mayan

calendar apocalypse. And many of you may have

never even heard of this because really the only

reason I know about it, I remember Logan asking

about this when he was really young. Well, they're

saying it's gonna be the end of the world Because

some calendar by a certain people Didn't have

a next year on it. That was all there was to

it There were movies made about this where there

was all kinds of newsreels and everything all

of this to cultivate fear in people You know

serious enough that NASA actually came out and

did a Frequently asked questions on what it meant

what it was You had all of these things and these

fears built up in people over a non -event. When

they asked the Mayan people, okay, what does

it mean? There is no continuation after this.

They said it's the end of a period. That's it.

Much like when you go to the bank on January

1st, you get your new calendar. You take the

old one down, you put the new one up. That's

all this amounted to. It was blown out of proportion

and people were fed these things over and over

and they stockpiled food And they made preparations

for the end of the world that never came Now

that seems kind of kind of funny doesn't it and

we look at that To think that people got that

worked up over a non -event, but how many things

do we have in our minds? That we succumb to Things

that we hear about these things and it's just

constantly a barrage of these things coming to

us. And we worry about that. And it creates fear

in us. And we waste time and resources and all

of these things. Once again, that's not what

God wanted in our lives. He wanted a life of

hope. And this verse explains that the desire

of hope of the righteousness, desire or hope

of the righteous, will be granted. For the righteous

the hope would have been to continue to serve

God in that event What hope would we have if

that had been the end of whatever? It would be

our hope to continue to serve God and we should

always keep in mind that God is in control And

he is not bound by man or events that occur in

this world When we hear about those things understand

that God is not controlled by any of that He's

not bound by anything that happens in this world

and the funny thing when you look at that is

When we think about things and we think oh man

things have just gotten so bad here Surely the

end of the world is about to be the wind of the

world's got to be upon us because things are

so bad And I think about that and I think you

know what if Sean tried to go to Nigeria and

explain that to these people The US is so bad

It's got to be the end of the world. They would

think he was crazy to think that we've got all

of the resources and all of the things that we

have and to think this is a terrible place because

of whatever. That would be very hard to explain,

wouldn't it? Because of their conditions and

the conditions that they live in. And to think

that we've got it so bad, it just must be the

end of the world. When you think about that,

it seems humorous. In John 20 and verse 19 it

says, Now this was actually a great time of uncertainty.

This was a great time of fear, where people actually

had a reason. to fear what was going on around

them, what was going on in society, what was

going on that these people would come to them

and actually threaten physical harm against them.

Jesus has been crucified. These people had no

idea what to expect at that time. They did not

know, and yet they assembled together. And Christ

is there, and He enters in, and what did He say?

peace be unto you. Now I don't know what kind

of mindset I would have been in at that time.

That would have been a tough time, wouldn't it?

And there would probably be some fear in all

of our hearts if we were in that position, if

we were there at that time. But Jesus said, peace

be unto you. That's hard to do, isn't it? We're

given those same Words of encouragement. We're

told that very thing that no matter what's going

on in this world To have that peace to have that

hope that Christ allows us And I'm thankful we

have these types of examples to look to when

we think about these types of things to see that

people were challenged in those times and their

their faith and and their hope in Christ Was

enough to deliver them No, God didn't interior

intend for us to live in fear His desire was

for us to live in love and serve him in second

Timothy 1 in verse 7 It says for God hath not

given us the spirit of fear but of power and

of love and of a sound mind You know fear is

not what God intended Fear of physical danger

fear of what could be fear of failure and probably

the most common fear of the unknown. You can

see here on a slide, this was a study done back

in 2019 at Penn State. Hundreds of people that

were in this study reported worrying about at

least one thing or event. And it was only things

that could happen during the study. In other

words, like we said, you may fear you're going

to fail a math test, well okay, that happened

during the study, we'll take that one. Fear that

I may get cancer in my lifetime, they didn't

use those types of fears because that was beyond

the study. But of these things, 100 % of the

people in the study report worrying about at

least one thing or event. 91 % of all fears reported

in the study never came true. Of the other 9

% of worries that did come true, 33 % of the

time the outcome was better than expected. And

for 25 % of participants, exactly zero of their

worries materialized. That tells you we waste

a lot of time worrying about things that are

never going to happen. We let those things come

at us. And what we also know is we are an overstimulated

population. And that has to do with the conveniences

we have in this life that has to do with the

communications we have in this life. It has to

do with all sorts of things. But the bottom line

is we are overstimulated with this type of stuff

because it constantly comes at us. Remember,

most of those fears are unfounded. especially

the ones where we have the fear of the unknown.

We don't know what's going to happen on this

event so it creates fear in us. How do you solve

that fear if we don't even know what it is we're

afraid of? We just know we're afraid because

we don't know what the outcome is going to be.

Don't waste our time on that. Concentrate on

hope rather than those fears. In Proverbs 29

and 25 it says, the fear of man bringeth a snare,

but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall

be safe. The Lord says, it will be okay, so I

can do what I need to do. When we're caught in

this snare, we can't do what we need to do. I

think it would be unwise to throw caution to

the wind. There are certain things we should

have caution about. We should make preparations

and there are occurrences in our lives that we

have no control over. And I'm not saying we should

just throw all that away. What happens today

happens today. We should make plans. We should

make contingencies. But all of our effort, all

of our concentration should not be on the things

that may happen in this life. And to allow fear

to consume and hold us captive prevents us from

serving God as He would have us to do. In 1 John

4, In verse 18, we read, You can't live in peace

if you're trapped in fear, can you? You can't

do it. Because that fear tries to consume you.

It will take all the resources, all the emotion

that you will give it. If I listen to everything

in the media on the internet and that is my only

consideration Then I'm leaving here and I'm going

home and I'm boarding up my house and don't bother

coming by I'm shutting it down Because the media

all of those things they're after one thing attention

their purpose of being there is to gather attention

and So when we look at those things we have to

understand that we have to weigh it that it's

for attention. And while the information given

there may be useful, it may be something that

we can use, we have to take it for what it is.

You know, if I were looking for a job right now,

and these were the things I trusted with the

media and the internet, then my approach would

be very undesirable. And I heard this example,

I think it was Dave Ramsey, several years ago.

He gave this example. when talking about looking

for a job. And it may have been through COVID

or something like that, but there was something

going on at that time. And I think it's very

comparable to now because things I see on the

internet says, nope, you're not finding a job.

There's no sense in trying. But the example that

he gave went something like this. First, I'd

have to make the decision to get out of bed in

the morning, but I've been told I won't find

a job. So I really don't have much motivation

to even do that. However, If I do decide to get

out of bed, then I'll have to put some effort

into looking for opportunities which I'm told

don't exist. Once I'm granted an interview, I

go where I'm told I won't be given a job in order

to plead my case on why they should hire me.

My fear of failure prevents me from putting my

best foot forward, and the fear of not getting

a job that I harbored is manifested in my poor

performance. All of this because I had a fear

of something unfounded. That is the torment that

comes with fear. It keeps us from doing the things

we know to do and that includes serving God.

How many times have we been faced with something

similar? How many times do we worry about the

fears that we have and they keep us from doing

what we know to do? It's one thing to not know

how to go about doing something, but it's quite

another when we have these fears that keep us

from doing it. Unfortunately, that's within our

control. We can choose. I'm not going to let

that fear stop me. I'm going to do the things

that I know I need to do. In 1 Peter 3 and verse

13, It said, and who is he that will harm you

if you be followers of that which is good? But

and if you suffer for righteousness sake happy

are ye and be not afraid of their terror neither

be troubled It's like we said fear will consume

you God has not given us the spirit of fear.

We read that and love is not fear and fear is

not love We're gonna harbor one of the other

We're gonna harbor that fear or we're gonna harbor

hope which comes from love and Fear will preoccupate

occupy you with all the terror of what may or

may not happen So why put so much effort into

something that should be placed on Christ the

things we have in this life, we know Prayer study

those types of things that we can overcome these

types of things and Yet we fail to do that If

we subscribe to the spirit of fear, then we most

certainly fail in everything we do. But lucky

for us, God had a plan. The hope that we have

has so much more power than the fear that we

can place on ourselves. Remember, fear doesn't

come from God, but a sound mind. And that's what

he wants from us, is a sound mind. A mind focused

on hope. And we can't concentrate on what's important

in this life when we're frozen by fear. In Psalms...

33 in verse 22 it says let thy mercy O Lord be

upon us according as we hope and the You know

the spiritual blessings we have in the far out

way what anyone can do to us in this life We

have those spiritual blessings They've been given

to us and they could take our ability to assemble

openly, but they can't take our ability to worship

him. Can they? We've proven that we've gone out

outside of here of this building, of this gathering

together, in order to do that. We have examples

where God's people worshipped in caves and under

cover of night. They were not deterred out of

fear from serving God. And that goes for every

aspect of our life. Don't let fear hobble you

from doing the things you know to do. In Psalms

43 and verse 5, We read, Why art thou cast down,

O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within

me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,

who is the health of my countenance and my God.

We can have many misplaced hopes in life that

are outside of God. And I can hope for riches,

thinking they'll solve my problems. But how many

of us know people that have endless amounts of

money, but a life full of problems? We all know

those people. We can't assume that that's going

to fix everything that we have a problem with.

You know, there was a time when certain businesses

were giving out these massive bonuses. You know,

oh no, I've come in all this money. And we know

at that time the government came in and taxed

90 % of those bonuses. It was given and it was

taken. It was lost as soon as it was granted.

You know, you can't assume that one thing or

another is going to solve all of our problems.

But we can have hope of a different leadership.

Or I'm sorry, we can have hope of a different

leadership that will solve our problems. But

the things we face today came from decisions

made under several different leaderships. We

can't think that one person is going to change

all that. Or one person led to all of the problems

that we have in this country. We can't assume

that. And when we hope in God, we can trust that

our loyalty and desire is placed on the right

thing in this life. Psalm 71 and 14, but I will

hope continually and will yet praise thee more

and more. That's where we concentrate on what's

important in life. We find fear in ourselves

and we place that on Jesus. Those fears can be

taken from us and we should avoid them where

possible. You know, that verse doesn't say, but

I will worry continually, morning, noon, and

night, does it? That's not what it says, because

worry doesn't fix any of our problems. It only

makes them worse. You know, I used to ride bikes

with a bunch of guys, and we would go to these

races, and a new guy went with us one time. And

so the main guy that we rode with, he was talking

to this guy and he said, now you're going to

want to be careful because that part of the track,

you know, it gets very narrow. And the guy says,

well, what if there's a rock in the track? And

he says, don't look at the rock. He said, okay,

don't look at the rock. I won't look at the rock.

So we went through all of this and we got back

and we waited and we waited for this guy and

he finally showed up. And he said, what happened?

Where were you? He said, well, I hit a rock in

the track. He said, did you look at the rock?

What do you think he said? He looked at the rock.

Why is that a problem? He had told him, don't

look at the rock. Look beyond the rock. Look

where you're going to. Because if you look at

the rock, the bike goes where you're focused.

Focus down track. And he didn't do that, did

he? He looked at the rock. He made a problem.

out of a non -issue by placing his focus on the

rock. If you learn nothing more this afternoon,

learn this. Don't look at the rock. Don't look

at the rock. Look beyond the rock. Look beyond

whatever it is that's holding you back. You can't

talk about fear and hope without talking about

faith, and I want that to be first and foremost

in what we learned this afternoon. Hope alone

won't make us follow through with the things

we need to do. It won't do it. We've got to have

a faith that drives us, a faith that drives us

to make those goals, a faith that drives us to

meet those milestones to whatever it is we're

trying to accomplish. If we bring that back to

the study this afternoon, God gives us hope of

a better life to come and our faith prompts us

to do the things we have to do in order to obtain

that life that we claim we want. We can do those

things and our faith should drive us to do it.

We have to be people of action. I want you to

know that. We've got to be people of action.

We've got to do the things we know to do. We've

got to pursue the Christian life. We can't just

let it happen to us because it's not just going

to happen to you. We've got to pursue it. If

we don't like our present situation, then we

have to make changes to obtain a different situation.

And this is true in our spiritual life as well

as our physical life. If we don't like it, we

have to change it. And if I don't have the spiritual

life I want and God wills me to have, then I

make changes to conform to His will. Not mine.

I don't force His outcome to be what I want it

to be. I have to force myself to conform to His

will. And anything in my physical life that I

don't like or need to change requires action

in order to obtain a different set of characteristics.

You know, it sounds simple, but once again, what

often prevents us is fear. We have this fear

to us as a people. We're scared of everything,

it seems, in one way or another. And some people

may not get it. No, I've just got a strong concern.

That's fear. We've got to be able to make the

changes that are required to have the life that

we want. And again, whether that's physical,

whether it's spiritual, either way, that's what

has to be done. In Hebrews 6 and verse 18, that

by two immutable things in which it was impossible

for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation

who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the

hope set before us. which hope we have as an

anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,

and which entereth into that within the veil.

That hope is an anchor for the soul. When we're

pushed about by the world, and you will be pushed,

we are anchored through His hope. We will be

pushed, and we will be nudged. It's going to

happen. And if we have that anchor like we're

supposed to and that hope in our lives, that's

what will keep us in line. And it gives us a

hope of something far and above anything this

life can offer. In Colossians 1 and verse 23,

it says, who now rejoice in my sufferings for

you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions

of Christ in flesh for his body's sake, which

is the church. This is the refuge he's provided

us in our current life. That's it. That's what

we're looking for. That's where our focus has

to be. The opportunity to gather here with those

of like minds. That's what he's given us in the

present time to help that focus stay on hope.

When my hope is fainting, I can draw it from

those around me, the others that are here, the

ones that aren't harboring fear, the ones that

have hope, the ones that exemplify hope. And

when they're down, they can draw that from me.

Just as pessimism is contagious, so is optimism.

It's just as contagious, and we need to remember

that and have an influence on those around us

to keep that optimism in their lives. I may spend

an entire week surrounded by pessimism, negativity,

all of those things. But when I come here, I'll

be uplifted by a people whose hope is centered

on Christ. That's what he's given us in the current

time. 1 Corinthians 13 and 13, the love chapter.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three,

but the greatest of these is charity or love.

Love brings about the other two. If I love God

and those around me, then I have faith and I

have faith. I have hope of something better to

come. Remember that. In Romans 12 and verse 12,

it says, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,

continuing instant in prayer. We have much to

be thankful for. I think we all know that. I

don't think there's anybody here that takes what

they have for granted. We know we're blessed

and we should. Be thankful for those things.

And this verse sums up what I hope we take with

us this afternoon. Rejoice because we have hope

in this life and for much more to come. Be patient

in tribulation. When we're faced with things

we don't like from this world or anything else,

remember, God is in control. He's in control.

And no one or no thing can change that. Take

the hope we have through Christ and pray on those

things. The effects will be much more positive

than isolating ourselves. You know, I hope as

a result of this study we'll have a better outlook

on the current things we face. And that's the

idea. Concentrate on what we have to face these

things. Avoid those things that cause us to harbor

fear, no matter what it is we're thinking of.

Use what he's given us to get in through this

life. You know, we've never been taught that

hard times would not come, that challenges would

not come, that fear wouldn't come. I think just

the opposite. He's told us those times will come.

And it's through hope that we'll make it through

those times. And I hope that you'll get that

from the study of this afternoon. Thank you for

listening to today's sermon from the Church of

Christ Wheeler area. We hope this message encouraged

you and strengthened you in your faith this week.

Don't forget the doors always open at 1500 South

Allen L. Bean Boulevard at 10 30 a .m on Sundays,

2 30 p .m on Sunday afternoons and recharge with

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blessed week and we'll see you next time.