Last week I mentioned that when you get "old" like me, you realize that there are things you are good at and things that you are not good at. Obviously, not only am I not good at plants but I also need to go back to elementary school science class to be reminded that plants take in carbon dioxide and not oxygen.
Anyway, one of the other things I have pretty much completely given up on is being "aware" of popular culture. I used to really try to keep up with music, television, movies and social media because it's kind of my job as a youth worker to know what's “cool” and what's "not". But I just don't have the energy in my life or the room in my brain to gather and store this information anymore! And to tell you the truth, it all just annoys me anyway, so I'm totally okay with being clueless.
The thing I hate most about our culture right now is "viral" anything. I could go on a rant for hours about how much I hate viral blog posts, videos, memes and just "fads" in general.
But there's one thing that annoys me in particular. It's been SO popular and everywhere you turn someone has changed the words and created their own version of it. I've seen six billion different versions on Facebook, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and phone cases. I've even seen Upper Merion shirts with a version of this on it!
My question for you tonight is: Do you actually know where this came from? I honestly, for like a year now, just assumed it was from some reality TV show or something. I actually thought it had something to do with the show "Jersey Shore" (I told you I'm clueless!). Anyway, in case you're as clueless as me, I'll fill you in:
This graphic was originally a "motivational" poster that was created in 1939 by the British government as World War Two was breaking out. Basically, the idea was that in the event of an attack from Hitler's forces on Great Britain's soil, seeing these posters would help people understand that widespread panic would only create chaos and make an attack that much worse. Instead, they should make every effort to "Keep Calm and Carry On".
This is night one of our series on COURAGE. It's pretty ironic that I am standing up here talking to you about this because the courage factor in my life is about zero on most days.
But one thing I do know a whole lot about is FEAR. God has brought me on a crazy, ridiculous journey over the past 8 years or so when it comes to fear in my life. So you could say I've been working on this message since around fall of 2005 and I'm honored to share with you tonight some of what God has taught me.
If you were to Google the list of top fears that the majority of people experience, you would get all sorts of different combinations of the following: spiders, snakes, the dark, heights, and public speaking.
But in reality, those are NOT the things we fear most. No matter how tough we think or say we are, we ALL have fears that run much deeper than bugs or unexplained noises in our houses late at night. And we deal with these fears on a daily basis. When you really stop to think about it, we all make tons of choices every day that are based on fear. Why do you do your homework? Why do you drive (close to) the speed limit?
Here are the TRUE top five things I believe we fear as humans:
Rejection
Loss
Failure
Pain
The Unknown
All of these things are really scary to us (whether we want to admit it or not) and when one or more of these things presents itself as a very real possibility in our near future, we fear. And when we fear, we REACT.
We're going to go way back in time to the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible. If you were here a few weeks ago, we talked about a guy named Abraham who was given a promise by God that he would be the father of a "great nation". Well, a few hundred years and many generations later, this family had multiplied hugely and this promise was absolutely coming true.
The bad news was that in that time, they had also become slaves in a place called Egypt and were under the rule of a brutal Pharaoh, who feared the loss of his power to this group of people that was multiplying in numbers and therefore, in their own power.
But God raised up another guy named Moses to take on Pharaoh and convince him to free the people. It worked and after 400 years they were finally FREE and this massive nation of hundreds of thousands of people walked on foot out of Egypt.
We're going to pick up the story in Exodus 14:5-9:
When word reached the king of Egypt that the Israelites had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds. "What have we done, letting all those Israelite slaves get away?” they asked. So Pharaoh harnessed his chariot and called up his troops. He took with him 600 of Egypt’s best chariots, along with the rest of the chariots of Egypt, each with its commander. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, so he chased after the people of Israel, who had left with fists raised in defiance. The Egyptians chased after them with all the forces in Pharaoh’s army—all his horses and chariots, his charioteers, and his troops. The Egyptians caught up with the people of Israel as they were camped beside the shore near Pi-hahiroth, across from Baal-zephon.
That "shore" that they were camped along is important to note. The Israelites had left Egypt and were now backed up against the Red Sea, with Pharoah's armies on their way. I would say that fear in this moment would have been an understatement!
Tonight we're going to look at the REACTION that the fear the Israelites experienced in that moment caused, because it is really similar to how we react to fears in our own lives today.
As humans we have a few basic reactions to fear. Sometimes our automatic reaction is to FIGHT. Some of the Israelites may have wanted to fight, but given that they had just been in slavery for multiple generations, you can guess that at this point they didn't have many trained warriors or large stashes of weapons. Fighting back at this point against the powerful forces of Pharaoh was not an option.
Sometimes our reaction is to HIDE or RUN. The Israelites might have liked to hide, but it's really hard to hide hundreds of thousands of people. And running or fleeing wasn't really an option either, because they were backed up against the Red Sea.
So here's how they DID react.
Verse 10: "As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them."
When fear stares us in the face, we tend to PANIC. The basic definition of panic is: an overwhelming sensation of fear that causes a person or a group of people to stop thinking rationally and logically. When you panic, your heart rate goes up and you start seeing in your head all of the "What if's" and you can literally lose your mind. In our house we call this a "freak-out". And what happens when you freak out is that you often go to extremes.
The Israelites had a pretty good reason to panic - their greatest fear was chasing them down and they had no where to run. So they lost their minds and went to an extreme place. After being freed from 400 years of slavery, they said this in verses 11 and 12:
They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, "Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!'"
For the Israelites this "panic" looked like:
1. Questioning (“Why is this happening to us?”)
2. Blaming (“You did this to us!”)
3. Irrational Thinking (“We'd rather be slaves than have to trust God in a scary situation!”)
We generally don't hit all of these extremes in our everyday life, but we DO panic. We might not run around screaming and shouting, but we DO see something happen or hear about something that has happened or is going to happen and somehow, something we hold on to is threatened. And we lose our minds. We have to go tell someone or tweet about it or find someone or something to make us feel better right away. A lot of times we make extreme decisions in those moments. Unfortunately, lots of times those decisions, made in a moment of irrational thinking, are extremely bad decisions that have major consequences in our lives. It's panic that leads us to fight, hide, or run away. It's panic that leads us to obsessively try to control a situation or manipulate people. It's panic that causes us to say things that hurt others - things that we can't take back.
Verse 13: "But Moses told the people, 'Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.'"
When you first read this verse, you might think, "Okay, God is telling them (through Moses) to stop running around." To just literally stand still. But really what He was saying was deeper than "stop physically moving", it was more like "Shut up!" He was telling them to stop the irrational complaining and whining - to calm the inner freak out that was causing the mass hysteria. He was asking and commanding them to still their hearts and their minds.
One of the reasons this poster has become so popular is because of how simple but bold the message is. When the British government designed the poster, the idea was that it was supposed to be a message from the King of England to the people as a clear reminder of the authority of the throne, that they could "keep calm" because they could TRUST in the decisions that were being made for them. That's why they put the crown symbol on top. The hope was that seeing that symbol would hopefully remind the people of who was "in control" and motivate them to stay calm.
When Moses told the Israelites to "stand still" and "stay calm" He didn't just tell them TO stop, He told them WHY to stop. They didn't HAVE to panic because God was in control and He had all the power in the universe to fight FOR them.
Psalm 46:10 says "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
The phrase for "be still" in this verse actually means to "let go" or "release". The root of panic and fear is a false assumption that you actually have control. The root of fear is a false belief that these five things are something you have control over:
Rejection
Loss
Failure
Pain or Discomfort
The Unknown
Some of you have met my niece, Aleah, who is six years old. One Sunday when we were in Vermont, we were with Aleah at church. At First Baptist, they say “The Lord’s Prayer” out loud together every Sunday. They say it in the more “traditional” way, so it’s “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done”. During the service that day, I was standing next to Aleah and I was listening to her say all the words - it was so adorable! And then as it went along, I heard her say he’s like “Hallowed by Thy Name, MY Kingdom come, MY will be done.”
The biggest reason we panic and fear is because things aren't going the way that WE want them to or the way WE planned for them to: "MY Kingdom is not coming – or at least I’m afraid that it won’t."
Psalm 46:10 tells us that if we want to stop the cycle of panic and fear, we have to LET GO and RELEASE that control that we think we have. And we do that by doing what the second part of this verse says - we know that He is God.
The number one way to stop the panic, the number one way to overcome ANY fear in your life is WORSHIP. Every time you worship, through songs or just through your words or thoughts, you know and understand just a little bit more what it means that He is GOD. And the more you start to understand what that means, the more you understand that panicking, even though it comes so naturally to us, is completely pointless.
The beginning of this chapter of Psalms starts off by saying in verse 1: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." Ever-present. Always here. Verse 7 calls God "the LORD Almighty" or the "Commander of the heavenly armies". There is a dimension and an entire alternate reality that literally surrounds us - it's not up outside this planet in outer space billions of miles away. God, in ALL of His power is EVER-PRESENT. If you have made the choice in your life to receive Christ and start a true relationship with Him, the God of the universe, the commander of angel armies has GOT YOUR BACK AND YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO FEAR.
Exodus 14:15: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!'"
GET MOVING? Kind of funny that His first instruction to them was to "be still" but at the very same time He told them to "get moving". Of course at first that might have sounded like a ridiculous thing to do. Where were they supposed to get moving to? They had no where to go!
In verse 16 God said to Moses, "'Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground.'"
And they did.
But this is the part that really gets me. Exodus 14:17-18:
"And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers. When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord!”
The greatest consequence of fear in our lives is not that we might panic and cause a worse problem by making a mistake or hurting someone. The greatest consequence of fear in our lives is that God might present us with an opportunity and we might be so focused on ourselves and so paralyzed by our fears that we might miss out on a chance to walk forward in obedience and bring Him glory. THAT is what is at stake.
The consequence is not that God won't be glorified. Psalm 46:10 says, "I WILL be exalted among the nations, I WILL be exalted in the earth.” He doesn't need you to glorify Him, but He does WANT to show up in your life in a big way.
God was PHYSICALLY leading the Israelites with a pillar of cloud and fire as they fled and traveled away from Egypt. He’s God, He had a map! Don’t you think He knew exactly what He was doing pointing them right into what would have looked to anyone else like a dead end? He absolutely had a plan to show His glory to them by rescuing them and to show His glory to the Egyptians by defeating them.
Just like this verse says that He displayed His glory THROUGH the Egyptians - the very thing the Israelites were so afraid of - He wants to use whatever your fear is to bring glory to Himself and show Himself to you in HUGE ways!
No matter who you are, there is some amount of fear in your life and there will always be. Situations that cause us to fear are a guarantee in this world. But panic is not. Every time you sense the freak-out coming, you have the choice to acknowledge God's presence instead - to choose to worship Him instead. Because the same God who had the power to make billions of gallons water stand up like a wall, is the same God who surrounds you right now. NOTHING in your life is too hard for Him. NOTHING is out of His control. NOTHING.
A couple of weeks ago, a whole bunch of us went on the Breakaway middle school retreat. On Saturday night we were just about ready to start “club” which is kind of like we’re doing right now, only with 300 middle schoolers. Anyway, 10 minutes before club was supposed to start, the power went out all across the camp. There was a generator that kicked in, but it only gave power to certain places and the club room was not one of them. The kids were freaking out because they didn’t know what was going on - the lights kept going out in the buildings they were in and it was starting to get really windy. There was definitely tons of panic! There was panic among all of the youth leaders and the retreat leadership as they tried to figure out how to rearrange the schedule. And the worship team, tech team and I (because I was speaking that night) were trying to figure out how to work with the small amount of power we had.
At one point I ran down to my room to grab my laptop and on my way back, I was looking up at the sky as the storm was moving in. We had been singing a song called “Whom Shall I Fear” (God of Angel Armies) all weekend and as I was looking at the sky I was just overwhelmed with a sense of peace. I was 100% confident in that moment that the WHOLE camp was surrounded with angel armies and that God was going to get tons of glory from this situation!
And He did – the power came back on in the club room at 8:30 - the exact time we had planned to start. The energy for worship in that room that night was out of this world and kids hearts were open to hear the gospel message and several kids accepted Christ into their lives that night.
My challenge to you tonight is to really take some time and talk with God about the fear and panic levels in your life. Think and pray about what it is that you REALLY fear. And then I challenge you to let it go, to release it to God by worshipping Him. He is your strength, He is your refuge, He is your ever-present help in times of trouble!
Make It Real For You
1) Which of the top five TRUE fears is the biggest in your life? Why? What part of “MY kingdom” are you most afraid of losing or having to let go of?
Rejection
Loss
Failure
Pain or Discomfort
The "Unknown"
2) What are some ways you have had a “PANIC” reaction to fear?
3) Read Psalm 46. What are some reasons you have NOT to panic?
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