BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR

          Our generation is caught between hope and fear. There is a fine line between the two. My political email buddies sometimes struggle with the largely negative nature of my right-wing conservative email pieces. Often my friends are left with more fear than hope. I apologize to them for being so dismal at times. What I really want is for my uninvolved evangelical friends to get out and vote on November second.

          I’m ashamed to say that less than twenty-five percent of evangelicals actually go to the polls to vote. This must change. I believe that while we are not of the world we must INFLUENCE our world for Christ. We must, on the other hand, lower our expectations of the world. It is hopelessly flawed and based on wrong assumptions.

          The three “P’s” are aimed at setting mankind free from their fears and granting them hope. Do these worldly approaches to rid ourselves of fear work? Can power, possessions, or popularity really deliver us from our fears?

          If power could, then Joseph Stalin should have been fearless. Instead, this infamous Russian premier was afraid to go bed. He had seven different bedrooms. Each could be locked as tightly as a safe. In order to foil any would-be assassins, he slept in a different one each night. Five chauffeur-driven limousines transported him wherever he went, each with curtains closed so no one would know which contained Stalin. So deep-seated were his apprehensions that he employed a servant whose sole task was to monitor and protect his tea bags.'

          If possessions conquered fear, the late billionaire Howard Hughes would have been fearless. But you probably know his story. His distrust of people and his paranoia of germs led this billionaire to Mexico, where he died a lonely death as a cadaverous hermit with a belly-length beard and corkscrew fingernails.'

          What about popularity? Beatle John Lennon's fame as a singer, songwriter, and pop icon made him a household word, but his fears brought him misery. His biographers describe him as a frightened man, unwilling to sleep with the lights off and afraid to touch anything because of its filth.'

Though Stalin, Hughes, and Lennon are extreme cases, they are indicative ones. To gain hope and banish fear, put your HOPE in the Lord!  The Jewish people have been reminding themselves to do this for thousands of years at Yom Kippur. Why cannot we learn from them?

Pastor Phil  <><<

 

 

        BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR       

Sheepfold Ministries – Pastor Phil Roland

September 26, 2010

 

BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR

Deuteronomy 10:12-21

 

“There is a fine line between hope and fear. Fear can be a motivational force that forces us to make healthy choices. Economic hardship, unemployment or under-employment can destroy our hope and bring us to fear. Our HOPE is in the Lord and He is our strength.”      Pastor Phil  <><<

 

There are seven Holy Feasts in Ancient Israel:

1. Feast of Passover                                  4. Pentecost (Feast of Weeks)

2. Feast of Unleavened Bread                5. Feast of Trumpets

3. Feast of Firstfruits                                 6. Feast of Booths (Tabernacles)

                                    7. DAY OF ATONEMENT

 

I. THE JEWISH DAYS OF AWE / High Holy Days

          A. Rosh Hashanah – Feast of Trumpets

                        1. Jewish New Year 5771

                        2. Began sunset September 8,  2010 to September, 2011

            B. Sukkot - Feast of Tabernacles

                        1. Also called Feast of Booths

                        2. Began September 23, 2010 and lasts seven days

            C. Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement

                        1. Day of Repentance and Self- Examination

                        2. Saturday, September 18, 2010

                       

II. THE FINE LINE BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR – Deut. 10:12

"And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”

          A. Our attitude determines how we feel

                        1. Our thoughts MUST come before our mood

                        2. Cognition + Feelings = Action

                        3. Pro-Action, not Re-Action

            B. Victor Frankl, psychologist and a survivor of Auschwitz quote:

     “The last and greatest human freedom is the freedom to choose your attitude.”

            C. The Days of Awe involve Courage to Change oneself

                “When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to                    change ourselves.” Victor Frankl

                        1. Christians tend to think that happened in the past only

                        2. Jewish believers do it once yearly

                        3. Scripture teaches it is a daily affair for devout Christians

            D. Fear and Love in the text?

                        1. Is this contradictory?

                        2. Not if we are referring to the fear of G-d / Reverence for G-d

BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR, cont., p.2

 

III. MOTIVATIONAL FEAR CAN CAUSE US TO DO GOOD WORKS

          A. Health and Wellness fears

                        1. “My doctor put the fear of God in me”

                        2. My father could put the fear of God in me!

            B. Financial fears

                        1. Fear of Lack / Not Having Enough

                        2. Your financial advisor can put healthy fear into you

            C. Fear of the Unknown

                        1. Fear of what might happen or could happen

                        2. Old-Timer’s quote

                            “I lived a great many years and been fearful of a great many

                              things, most of which never came to pass.”

            D. Vocational Fears

                        1. Fears of job loss: employer downsizing/out-sourcing

                        2. Fears of being unemployed

 

IV. WHAT ABOUT HOPE? Isaiah 40:31

     “But those who wait (hope)on 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 faint.”

            A. “WAIT” Hebrew, “QUA-VAH” = Wait, Hope, Ernest Expectation

                        1. To Bind Together By Twisting Several Materials Together

                        2. Taking one or more strands of material and binding them

                             together with stronger material to make a rope.

                        3. What are we binding together in HOPE?

                                    a. Our Faith in tomorrow

                                    b. Our Ernest Expectation about the future

                                    c. Bind it together w/G-d’s faith in us

            B. People w/o Hope can become sick – Proverbs 13:12

              “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a

                tree of life.”

                        1. Easy to “burn-out” doing the right thing – Galatians 6:9

                          “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we

                            shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

                        2. Easy to lose the deep longing for G-d’s intervention

            C. President Roosevelt spoke to a nation w/o hope like that in his                          First Inaugural Speech of March 4, 1933:

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life, a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves, which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days … Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy, the moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days, my friends, will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men.”

BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR, cont., p.3

 

V.  FIVE THINGS TO DO BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR

     "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear

        the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the

        LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,  "and to keep the

        commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today

        for your good?” Deuteronomy 10:12,13

            A. FEAR THE LORD YOUR G-D

            B. WALK IN ALL HIS WAYS

            C. LOVE HIM

            D. SERVE THE LORD YOUR G-D

            E. KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD – Matt. 22:35-40

               “Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and

                 saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"

                 Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your

                 heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the first and

                 great commandment. "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your

                 neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law

                 and the Prophets."

 

V.  JEWISH SOLUTION IS YOM KIPPUR – Deut. 10:16

   "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.”

            A. BRITH – Jewish ritual for males performed on their 8th Day of life

                        1. BRITH – In Hebrew means “to cut”

                        2. The Hebrew understanding for “covenant” is in “Brith”

                        3. Marked them for Abraham’s Blessing – Gen. 12:3

                            “I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses

                              you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

            B. YOM KIPPUR is God’s yearly command to “Brith” your heart

                        1. Cut away hard heartedness

                        2. Cut away indifference, pride and arrogance

                        3. Carry Abraham’s Promise in your covenanted heart

 

 

 

 

                                               

 

 

 

 

BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR

Deuteronomy 10:12-21

"And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

13  "and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good?

14  "Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it.

15  "The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.

16  "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.

17  "For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.

18  "He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.

19  "Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

20  "You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name.

21  "He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.