October 7, 2001 Luke 2
¡§Jesus is the Answer to your fear¡¨
INTRODUCTION
1. Jesus is the immovable ROCK. (Isaiah 26:1-4)
ƒá Hard ¡V some people want God¡¦s standards to bend. Allow sin. Allow other religions. ¡§I am the way¡K¡¨ There¡¦s a reason that the Ten Commandments were written on stone. They were not made to change.
ƒá Unbreakable ¡V Our soldiers going into battle have been trained to be unbreakable both physically and mentally. They¡¦re going to face great obstacles, and any of them who are captured are going to face men who want to break them.
Pilate tried to break Jesus. He had him beaten, mocked, interrogated, deprived of sleep ¡V but even when Jesus was half-dead, He wouldn¡¦t give in to the temptations placed before Him.
ƒá Unfeeling [NOT!] ¡V people have asked how God could allow the events of Sept. 11. But long before that, people asked how God could allow cancer or deformities or miscarriages or job loss. They seem to think that the presence of suffering in their lives is evidence that God does not care ¡V that He is so far removed from us that our situation does not affect Him. The Bible records of Jesus, who is God, that ¡§we do not have a High Priest who is not touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin.¡¨ ( ) When those thousands of people died as a result of the planes crashing into the twin towers and the pentagon, Jesus hurt. The Bible records that God¡¦s people are the apple of His eye. When evil men do harm to God¡¦s people, God pays attention. It affects Him. He feels all the pain that you feel right along with you. But because He is the ROCK, He does not fear. Because He is the Rock, He does not allow the pain to crush Him or move Him from His person, purpose or plan. He keeps right on going, and He can enable those who trust in Him to do the same.
2. Jesus is the covering SHELTER. (Isaiah 25:4-6)
You need a shelter when the events of the day or the struggles of your life are threatening to sap every ounce of strength that you have remaining. In a shelter, you find:
ƒá Rest (Ps. 91:1 ¡V ¡§shadow of the Almighty¡¨; children are afraid of shadows. When you see a shadow, think of it as the shadow of the Almighty ¡V God is nearby standing guard over you) ¡V one of the things that survivors from the twin towers talk about is the inability to sleep. They¡¦re so fearful of what might happen tomorrow and have so many visions of that day floating around in their heads that they just can¡¦t seem to get any sleep. Maybe you¡¦re like that. The situations that you are facing occupy your thoughts so much during the day that when it comes time to lay your head on the pillow at night, you can¡¦t shut your brain down long enough to get the thing you need most ¡V sleep. Turn with me to Psalm 4:8. [read it]
ƒá Companionship ¡V the shelter is a place where everyone gathers at the end of the day to swap stories. Some had a productive day. Others faced dangers that they barely escaped. Still others feel like they got nothing accomplished. This is the place where they can encourage one another and have their spirits lifted.
ƒá Nourishment ¡V the heat of the day, the quarrels with other shepherds for grazing rights and time at the well has drained you dry. The shelter is the place where you come to be replenished ¡V where you come to feast on the Master¡¦s bountiful supply. It is here that you find everything that you need in order to help you face tomorrow with more vigor than you faced today.
ƒá Satisfaction ¡V the day¡¦s work is done. Once the meal is over, you sit back to evaluate what has happened in the day. You try to gain some perspective. You may not have gotten done everything on your to-do list done. But you did what was important rather than just what was necessary. You can be satisfied with what you have accomplished. You realize that God is good, and that He has taken care of you for another day. You go to sleep while praising God. You are in His shelter. You have nothing to fear.
3. Jesus is the impenetrable FORTRESS. (Psalm 59)
You need a fortress when enemies from the outside are attacking you.
Dennis the Menace had his own personal fortress. It was his tree house. It was a ¡§Boys ONLY¡¨ kind of tree house. It was guarded with all the vigilance and vigor that little boys could muster. It was guarded not against the terrorist attacks of Muslim zealots but against a much more dangerous foe. It was guarded against girls ¡V and one in particular. Her name was Margaret. But even that fortress was not impenetrable. For once Margaret had something with which should could embarrass Dennis and make him look really bad to his army of boys, she was allowed access. She started putting up curtains on the windows and paint on the bare wood walls. She brought dolls into the tree house and turned it all ¡§girly¡¨. Things were never the same.
As little boys and girls grow up, they establish a new kind of fortress. It is their home. ¡§A man¡¦s home is his castle.¡¨ That¡¦s the one place that you can go where you feel safe and secure. You are in control there. NO one can touch you there ¡V not work, not the neighbors, no one can come in without your permission. You come home one night to discover the front door wide open. You wonder who was the last person out because that person is going to get in trouble for not shutting and locking the door. But as you go in and start to look at things, you get an eerie feeling. Things have been moved. As you walk through the house, you begin to discover things are missing. You¡¦re house has been broken into. No matter how many locks that you put on the door or how inclusive your home security system is, you know that things will never be the same. You never sleep quite as soundly as you used to. You know that your fortress has been penetrated.
Here in the USA, we thought that we lived in an impenetrable fortress. We thought that no one could get past the strongest military in all the world. We were wrong. Our fortress has been penetrated. We are vulnerable. Nothing will ever be the same.
Is there any place that is truly safe? YES!! Jesus said that all who come to Him are held in the Father¡¦s hand and that no one can pluck them out of His Father¡¦s hand. When you¡¦re held in the hand of the Father, no one can reach you. That fortress is truly impenetrable. When you are in the fortress, you have:
ƒá Safety ¡V not only for yourself but for your children (Pr. 14:26 ¡V He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children, it will be a refuge.) No matter how many locks you put on the door, you cannot keep an intruder who really wants to get in from coming in. No matter how over-protective you are of your children, you cannot watch them 24 hours a day. You cannot monitor everything that they watch, every person that they talk to, every idea that is put in their head. But God can. He can keep them safe.
ƒá Security ¡V being free from fear and anxiety over who may be waiting for you outside the walls of that fortress. You know that you are safe, so you feel secure.
ƒá Confidence ¡V you can have the confidence to live your life to its fullest. You don¡¦t have to be looking over your shoulder all the time or living in fear wondering when the other shoe will drop. Jesus said that He came to give us abundant life. We can¡¦t live the abundant life if we¡¦re always walking around in fear of what is going to come tomorrow or what is waiting around the next corner. But we can live it to the full if we remember that we are within the fortress of God¡¦s power and loving care.
4. Jesus is the stabilizing FOUNDATION. (Mt. 7:24-27)
¡§On a blustery day, a fellow was working on his roof, which had a sharp peak. So he decided to be safe he should somehow secure himself to something on the earth. He tied a rope around his waist, pulled it tight, climbed to the roof, and went over the peak. Then he threw the rope over the side and said to his boy, ¡¦Tie that to the tree.¡¦ Well, the little kids thought, ¡¥That tree is rather small.¡¦ So he tied it to the bumper of his dad¡¦s car.
Mom was busy in the house with chores of her own. She discovered, however, that she needed to make a quick trip to the store. She went out, put the car in reverse¡K¡¨ and you can guess the rest of the story. [Chuck Swindoll ¡V Tales of the Tardy Oxcart p. 508
ć Here in WV, we know the importance of having a good foundation and making sure that foundation is on firm ground. Many of you probably had to get mine subsidence insurance when you purchased your homes. That protects you from the possibility of your home sinking into the ground because of the fact that you built over land that had been mined out.
A small town up north was having a celebration. Their new volunteer fire department was finally complete. They were so proud of it. A few weeks later, the crew began to notice that the windows were becoming difficult to open and close. A month or so later, cracks began to form in the walls. They brought in the building inspector. After examining the building, he discovered that the foundation had been built over a fault line. Minuscule earthquakes over time had weakened the foundation which then eventually caused the destruction of the firehouse. Everything on the outside had looked fine, but the foundation was weak. So the building had to be condemned.
A firm foundation, whether it is for a building or a person, has some benefits:
ƒá Steady ¡V it keeps you steady when the storms of life come along. [refer to the Matthew passage] What are you looking to in your life to keep you stable or to get you stable? Your spouse, your job, your therapist? Last night, I was watching a show that followed up on a lot of the actors of the past to find out where they are today. Many of them had gone on to other professions, some of them had died, and others had fallen prey to drugs and alcohol. When their shows were over, they looked for something else to give them the stability that working had once given them. One of these actors though found a different source for his stability. He was one of the children on the old show ¡§Eight is Enough.¡¨ He was the boy with the huge head of hair. I think he was the second oldest. For a while, he tried the drug culture with all the women, money and everything that came along with it. But that only made his world more out of control. And then he turned to Jesus Christ. Now, some of you may know him as BibleMan. He has his own video series that portrays him as a super hero who battles evil with the Word of God. He travels to churches all across the nation telling kids that Jesus is the way. Jesus gave stability to his life, and He can give that same stability to any life over which He has control.
ƒá Build on it (1 Cor 3:10-15) ¡V in a war torn country, there is no motivation to build. Why build when the bombers will soon be returning and will destroy everything that you have worked for all over again? But when you have Jesus as your foundation, and when you are building with the right kind of materials, you have the guarantee of God that what you build will last no matter how hot the flames get. The flames that burned those towers in NY were hot ¡V many thousands of degrees. But they are nothing compared to the flames of the judgment of God. If what you build ¡V whether that be your family, your work for God, or the character that you build in your own life ¡V can survive the flames of God, then it can certainly survive the flames which any terrorist activity of this world or the spiritual world can throw at it.
5. Jesus is the unifying CORNERSTONE. (Eph. 2:14-22)
One of the positive effects of the terrorist actions of Sept. 11 has been the unifying of America and even to a certain extent, the unifying of the world. People are uniting around patriotism. Flags are flying everywhere. When there was a shortage of flags, the paper printed a flag on one of their pages. I¡¦ve seen those paper flags posted on doors and windows all over Bridgeport.
Others though are uniting around hatred ¡V hatred of Muslims and Arab people regardless of whether or not they had anything to do with the attacks on our nation. And because these attacks were at least partially motivated by religion, there is a cry to unify people against religion ¡V to get rid of it completely.
I watched a portion of the tribute that many of the nationally know singers did in behalf of the relief effort a couple of weeks ago. One of the songs that was on that program was a song by John Lennon called ¡§Imagine¡¨. Out of all the songs that I know or have heard, if I had to pick one that I think is the most dangerous of them all, I would pick that one. It¡¦s a beautiful song with a beautiful desire. It¡¦s desire is for all men to live in harmony and be at peace with one another. It talks about a world where there is no war or famine or disease. All good things. A world where people look out for one another and take care of each other. Again, good things. But then it says, ¡§Imagine a world where there¡¦s no religion, no heaven or hell¡¨. In other words, you remove religion ¡V you take God out of the picture ¡V and everyone will live at peace with one another. That¡¦s a LIE! The fact is that the presence of God and Christianity in this world is the one thing that is keeping it from falling into total chaos. It is when you allow God to have total control of your life and your world that everything fits together properly. It is then that you figure out the purpose for your life. It is then that you can live in peace with people who are different from you because you can love them with the love that God has given you.
A cornerstone in a building does a couple of things:
ƒá It tells what that building is all about ¡V on it, it has imprinted the date the building was constructed, maybe the name of the building, or possibly the motto of the company that will occupy it. One day, Jesus had a scribe come to him and ask Him what the greatest commandment was. In His answer, Jesus told what life was all about. He said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And the second greatest commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself. Everything hung on those two commandments. The church that we are a part of ¡V the building of which Jesus is the cornerstone ¡V has as its purpose loving God and loving people. Do you want to know your purpose in life? There it is. Love God. Love people.
ƒá Holds it all together ¡V it gives unity and strength to the building. The cornerstones of today are largely ornamental in nature. They serve no more significance than any other block in the building. But the cornerstones of ancient structure were far more important. The weight and stability of the whole building rested on the cornerstone. If you removed the cornerstone, the building would collapse. Jesus takes all the diverse cultures of His church, and all the different gifts of people within the church, and He pulls them all together so that they can be a mighty force for His kingdom.
6. Jesus is the unfurled BANNER. (Exodus 17:15-16)
As you have watched news coverage of the attack on the WTC, you have probably seen images of the firemen raising the flag at ground zero. It reminds a lot of people of a similar raising of the flag over Iwo Jima. That flag is our banner. It¡¦s as if the flag is being raised in defiance of those who would seek to defeat and quiet us. Every time you see a flag, it¡¦s a symbol of our resolve as a nation. We¡¦ve defeated foes in the past. We will defeat this one too. Not only have they not crushed us, but they have awakened us to our responsibility to stand together as a nation and to fight off any foe regardless of who they might be. A call to arms has rung out all over the country. It¡¦s time to go to war. It¡¦s a time to hold high our banner.
Not only is it a call to war for our nation, but it is a call to war for the church. We have a responsibility to fight evil wherever it may be. Evil does not reside solely in the person of Ben Laden. It resides in the heart of everyone who chooses to do what is wrong rather than choosing the right. It may reside in the heart of your neighbor. It may reside in your heart. Jer. 17:9 says ¡§The heart is desperately wicked; who can know it?¡¨ So when you find evil in the heart of someone near you, what do you do? Do you cower in fear? No, for Jesus said that when we go out in battle as the church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against us. There will be no defense that evil can muster that will be able to stop the army of God. What weapons do I use in my battle against evil? You use the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and you use love. In Song of Solomon 2:4, the writer says that God¡¦s banner over us is love. God¡¦s Word and love are the only things that will get rid of evil in the world. President Bush has promised to rid the world of evil. I wish that he could. But all the armies of all the world cannot do that. We are in a spiritual battle that can only be fought with spiritual weapons. ¡§We do not wrestle against flesh and blood¡Kbut against spiritual wickedness in high places.¡¨ ( ) We must join in the battle and fight the battle God¡¦s way.
CONCLUSION
An army that is afraid is an army that will be defeated. Are you living in fear today? If you are, then you can¡¦t live the full life that God wants you to live. You can¡¦t enjoy it and all the pleasures that God has for you. And you can¡¦t be effective in the battle that God wants you to be involved in. Jesus is our immovable Rock, our covering Shelter, our impenetrable Fortress, our stabilizing Foundation, our unifying Cornerstone, and our unfurled Banner. Are you standing on the Rock, resting under the Shelter, protected by the Fortress, grounded on the Foundation, and held together by the Cornerstone? If so, then you can have the confidence to march beneath the Banner. God wants to take away your fear. God wants to use you in His army. Will you allow Him to be the answer to all your fears?
