Living In Fear

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 12th of October, 2025.  A recording of our service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]

Family, there’s a lot of scary stuff going on in the world these days.  You can’t turn on the TV or read the news without seeing a report of another shooting or someone being attacked or a hit and run incident.  If it holds, there may finally be a bit of peace in the Middle East, but history teaches it probably won’t last very long.  Something many of us never expected: law enforcement officers are under attack in a number of our larger cities, and National Guard troops are patrolling the streets.

Violent crime is becoming a norm because of a blatant disregard for human life.  Respect for person and property is at a low.  We can’t even have courteous discourse any more.  Disagreements quickly turn violent and someone gets hurt, or worse.

Many people are now afraid to even leave their homes.  Of course, their homes may no longer be safe, what with all the home invasions we hear of.  And we don’t have to go overseas or even to Charlotte to experience some of this mess.  It’s going on all around us.  So yeah, we have pretty good reason to be scared.

So did the Apostle Paul.  During his service to our Lord, he experienced shipwrecks, suffered many beatings, was bitten by a poisonous snake, faced angry crowds many times, and was often thrown into jail.

This morning, I’d like to look at the point when he was imprisoned in Rome for the second time.  He likely felt his days coming to a close, so he wanted to write to his protégé Timothy one last time.  He may have intended this as a "farewell" letter to his young friend who was leading the church in Ephesus.  He wanted to urge Timothy to stand strong in his faith and his service, reminding him not to give in to fear of anything man can do to him.

Please listen and follow along to the opening 14 verses of Paul’s 2nd and final letter to Timothy, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I have been sent out to tell others about the life He has promised through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 I am writing to Timothy, my dear son.

May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord give you grace, mercy, and peace.

3 Timothy, I thank God for you — the God I serve with a clear conscience, just as my ancestors did. Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 I long to see you again, for I remember your tears as we parted. And I will be filled with joy when we are together again.

5 I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. 6 This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

8 So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for Him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. 9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was His plan from before the beginning of time — to show us His grace through Christ Jesus. 10 And now He has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. 11 And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.

12 That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until the day of His return.

13 Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me — a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. 14 Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.

--2 Timothy 1:1-14 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, You watched over Paul the entire time he served Your Son Jesus.  You did not spare him any of the suffering or pain, in much the same way You did not stop the suffering Jesus endured.  But You did ensure he would be able to finish the task assigned him of spreading the Gospel message among the Gentiles.  Yet with all he went through, Paul was never afraid, for he knew that the world could not take away what was truly important, and that was his eternal soul.  Father, we need You to help us remember how Paul reacted to all the chaos going on around him.  We need to adopt his mindset and attitude.  We need to put all our trust in You and not worry about what the world and other people may do to us.  Please, Father, help us set aside our fears and go about the work Jesus assigned us, just like Paul did.  Please forgive us our failures and help us be more obedient to Your will, more loving, more open and caring, more compassionate, showing Your love to others so that they too might find 

salvation through Jesus.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better grasp the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Fear can be paralyzing.  And folks can be terrified of so many different things.  In his book, Nothing to Fear, author Fraser Kent lists just a few.  I’ll probably mangle the pronunciations, but here goes:

Peladophobia: fear of baldness and bald people. Aerophobia: fear of drafts. Porphyrophobia: fear of the color purple. Chaetophobia: fear of hairy people. Levophobia: fear of objects on the left side of the body. Dextrophobia: fear of objects on the right side of the body. Auroraphobia: fear of the northern lights. Calyprophobia: fear of obscure meanings. Thalassophobia: fear of being seated. Stabisbasiphobia: fear of standing and walking. Odontophobia: fear of teeth. Graphophobia: fear of writing in public. Phobophobia: fear of being afraid.

Personally, I have a dread, irrational fear of snakes - any snake, all snakes - but I don't let it keep me from going out in places snakes might be.  I try to practice the suggestion Robert Louis Stevenson gave when he said, "Keep your fears to yourself; share your courage with others."

So we can try our best to emulate Paul and not be afraid of a world gone mad.  But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the madness and take unnecessary risks.  We certainly shouldn’t step out into heavy traffic without looking for a safe time to cross the street.  And we know there are places we should avoid if at all possible, even in broad daylight.

We have to realize that if Paul suffered, if Jesus suffered, we certainly aren’t immune to the physical and emotional pain the world can inflict.  We must remember that Jesus promised that in this world we will have tribulations, but we can be of good cheer for He has conquered the world.  And Paul tells us that our suffering in this life cannot compare to the glory we will know when our next life begins.  Jesus has conquered the world and we will share in that victory at our last.

But we do have to get through this life, this world, first.  And while God is Sovereign over all of His creation, He has put our greatest enemy in control over the world and evil is all around us.  The Apostle John reminds us of this in his 1st letter to the early church, chapter 5, verse 19, when he writes…

19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.

--1 John 5:19 (NLT)

And evil has been among us since the very beginning, as noted by Moses in the 6th chapter of his Book of the Genesis, the last part of verse 9 and verse 11 through the first part of verse 13…

9b Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.  11 Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. 12 God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt. 13 So God said to Noah, "I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence."

--Genesis 6:9b, 11-13a (NLT)

Makes me wonder how much more we’ll have to endure before the earth has again been completely filled with violence.  And yes, we do have to endure the evil of the world, even as we try to stand against it.  But Jesus tells us that we must not respond to evil with evil, to not react in kind.  The Apostle Matthew recorded this instruction from our Lord in the 5th chapter of his Gospel account, in verses 38 through 40, as Jesus addressed the multitude during His Sermon on the Mount…

38 "You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. 40 If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too."

--Matthew 5:38-40 (NLT)

Too often we see where people respond to violence by being violent in turn.  It’s a natural reaction – we want to defend ourselves.  We feel there’s no other choice but to fight back.  Anger fuels anger.  And violence can set our fear on fire, kicking in our need to defend ourselves.

Jesus says turn the other cheek.  Don’t return anger with anger, violence with violence.  Don’t let fear trigger a violent reaction of our own.

Family, in all these years of human existence, little has changed in the collective heart of man.  The wicked strut all around us, not caring a bit how blatant their lies are.  They spread false rumors and made-up claims just to cause trouble and strife.

This is not a political issue.  It's not left versus right.  It's not conservative versus liberal.  It's evil against good.  The church still stands as the bulwark against evil, just as Jesus promised.  We, His church, will endure and withstand.

So let’s ignore our fear.  Let’s keep doing the work Jesus assigned us, trying to save the non-believers from the horrible fate that awaits them, sharing the Gospel with anyone who will listen.  For this is God’s will for us, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the blessed name of Jesus.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for giving us chance after chance to do the right thing as we walk this earth.  Thank You for Your patient mercy.  We know we can put all our trust in You, Father, but too often we let our fear overrule our faith.  Too often we walk in fear, we live in fear.  Please help us remember that this life is short and once we are through it, we will dwell in paradise with You.  So we don’t need to worry about what the world, other people, or even Satan might do to us as long as we remain faithful to our Lord Jesus.  We try to not live in fear, but it’s hard not to.  We need Your help, Father.  Please keep reminding us of our future life with You, which far outweighs any suffering we may experience in this life.  And please help us reach out to others and share with them all You teach and show us through Your word. 

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for standing with us in this world gone mad.  Even as we worry about our safety and the safety of our loved ones, we know that while the world may take our mortal life from us, our eternal life is secured by our faith in You.  We love You, Jesus, and thank You for all You have done and continue to do for us.  We just ask that you please keep blessing us, keep helping us through these crazy times.  And please forgive us, Lord, when we struggle to love others like You want us to.  We know it disappoints You when we let our fear keep us from approaching others and showing Your love as we walk through each day.  Please help us be more like You in how we live and behave.  Help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to do to lead the lost to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Here We Are to Worship

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 5th of October, 2025.  This service is the first of our hybrid series - part traditional and part modern.  In this service, held on World Communion Sunday, we also participated in Holy Communion with our Lord Jesus.  A recording of our service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]

Jesus passed a loaf of bread and a cup of wine around His twelve disciples and commanded them, and us, to eat and drink in remembrance of Him.  The bread is His body, broken for our sake – Jesus taking our punishment upon Himself.  The cup is the new covenant God made with us, sealed by the blood of Jesus, the Spotless Lamb whose blood washes us clean of our sin.  When we share the bread and the cup in remembrance of Jesus, we worship our God for His grace and mercy.  That is why we are here this morning, to worship our loving, gracious, merciful God.

We all know about the meeting and conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in Sychar.  Jesus asked for a drink of water and she scoffed at Him, for a Jew would never even talk to a Samaritan woman, let alone drink from her cup.  So Jesus told her a little about her life, things He had no way of knowing, and she began to believe.

Please listen as the Apostle John picks up the story from there, as recorded in the 4th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 19 through 26, and as read from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…

19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you all say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 Yet the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.”

25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

--John 4:19-26 (MEV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, You are so very good to us and we thank You for all Your many blessings, including the blessing of our bible and everything in it that tells us about Your Son Jesus and Your great kingdom.  Father, even though we are disobedient children, prone to stumble and stray from the path of righteousness, we still plead for Your continued blessings, for we know we cannot get through another day without You.  Please help us ignore and avoid all the ways of the world that try to pull us away from You.  Help us return hatred with love, violence with prayer and forgiveness.  Help us be more like Your Son Jesus as we walk through this life.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us.  Tell each of us what we need to hear.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Pastor Rick Warren wrote a book titled The Purpose Driven Life, and A. W. Tozer titled one of his books, The Purpose of Man: Designed to Worship.  Both books answered the age-old question:  “Why am I here?”

Why are we here?  Why are we here on this earth?

I imagine each of us has posed that rhetorical question ourselves at one time or another, or had it asked of us.  Warren and Tozer both say that we are here, at this place in this time, to worship and serve God.  But then the world forces its way in and pushes all that aside.  And, at best, we’re left with an hour or two on Sunday mornings.  So each Sunday morning I open our service with a call to worship: “Come, let us worship our Father God”.

That is why we should be here, each one of us, to worship God and for no other reason.  There should be no personal agenda involved, nothing that would dilute just spending a little time with God, in the presence of His Son.  We’re not here to show off, or just to see our friends.  We’re certainly not here to be mindlessly entertained.  We are here to worship God, in words, in songs, in giving, in prayer.  In all things and all ways, let us worship our God, for He is an awesome God.

Now, someone may ask how do I worship?  What is involved with worship?  Am I doing it right by being here, by sitting here, by listening and maybe trying to sing a little, or at least speak the words?  Well… maybe; it really kind of depends.

Remember what Jesus told the Samaritan woman?  The time is now here when true worshippers will worship our Father God in spirit and truth.  Whether our worship is true depends on what is in our hearts, in our spirit.  It gets back to that question of why are we here.  And that word “here” can apply to here on earth as well as here in this building at this very time.  We are here – on earth and in this service – to worship God with all our heart and for no other reason than to be with Him and give Him all the glory and praise.

And looking at the question of are we doing it right, in a righteous way, we need to realize that there are many ways to worship in a manner pleasing to God.  Let me give you an example that some might not consider a form of worship.  Immediately after concluding His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was confronted by an outcast with a highly contagious disease.  Listen to how the Apostle Matthew relates this brief encounter as recorded in the first 3 verses of the 8th chapter of his Gospel account…

1 When He came down from the mountains, large crowds followed Him. 2 And then a leper came and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

3 Jesus reached out His hand and touched him, saying, “I will. Be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

--Matthew 8:1-3 (MEV)

The leper came and worshipped Jesus.  How?  How did the leper worship Jesus?

We aren’t told much about the scene, but we can imagine that he stopped the distance away from our Lord that the Jewish law required of a leper.  And we can envision that he probably got down on his knees, bowing before Jesus, which could be seen as a physical sign of worship.  But it is in his spirit, his heart, where the true worship is found.

“Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”  He had no doubt that first off, Jesus was Lord over him, and second that Jesus could cleanse him of this terrible disease if He was only willing to do so.

We don’t usually think of asking God or Jesus to help us as being a form of worship, do we?  It seems more self-serving than worshipful.  But this is what God wants, for us to put all our faith and trust in Him, knowing without a doubt that He can do anything, anything we might ask, if it is in His will.  Knowing and fully believing that God works all things to the good for those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose, this is just one of many forms of righteous worship.

Back in Capernaum, a crowd had gathered to hear Jesus teach and to be healed.  Among them was a pair of disciples of His kinsman, the imprisoned John the Baptizer, who had grown impatient waiting for Jesus to really do what He came to do, who wondered why he was still in chains when Jesus was supposed to free the prisoner.  Jesus told the two to go back and tell John, what they had seen, that Jesus healed the sick, cured the blind, made the lame to walk, and preached of the kingdom of God, all things according to Messianic scripture.  As they departed, He returned to addressing the crowd when…

I’ll let Matthew continue this story, as he recorded in the 9th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 18 and 19 and verses 23 through 25…

18 While He was speaking these things to them, a certain ruler came and worshipped Him, saying, “My daughter is even now dead. But come and lay Your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 Jesus rose and followed him, and so did His disciples.

23 When Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the musicians and the mourners making a noise, 24 He said to them, “Depart. The girl is not dead, but is sleeping.” And they laughed Him to scorn. 25 But when the people were put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

--Matthew 9:18-19, 23-25 (MEV)

The ruler came and worshipped how?  By asking Jesus to bring his daughter back to life, knowing without a doubt that He could do it.  So here again we see this form of worship, just asking for things we want to happen, and believing they will happen, if it is in God’s will.  The worship is in the belief, the faith.

Oh, and in between verses 19 and 23, Jesus also healed a woman who had suffered a bleeding illness for twelve years, when she just reached out and touched the hem of his robe.  She had faith that just touching His hem would be enough to cure her.  There was no doubt in her belief, her faith.  This too was a form of worship.

So yes, family, we are here to worship.  And it doesn’t matter what form our worship takes, as long as it is in sprit and in truth, that our faith and our belief drives our trust in our God.  We can pray, we can sing, we can just sit here and listen, as long as we are sincere in our faith, believing without a doubt in our Lord’s authority and ability.

But family, let’s remember that here, in this beautiful building, is not the only place and this hour together is not the only time we can stop and worship.  We are here, on this earth, to worship our God.  So let us extend our worship to any hour, any place, no matter the circumstance, no matter who we’re with.  Non-believers need to see the power of faith, and showing them is a form of worship.  Pray, sing, and preach if you can, all in the blessed name of Jesus.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, we are here to worship You.  We know that is what we are here to do, but Father, it is not something the world finds worthwhile or important.  Non-believers scoff at our faith.  Worse yet, they persecute us for it, even here in the United States.  So Father, sometimes we are worried and afraid to let our faith be seen, to worship in public.  Please forgive us, Father.  We thank You for the faith You have given us, to believe in You and Your Son Jesus, and to put all our trust in You.  Please help us be more open with our faith, more trusting that our service in Your name will work to our good, knowing that the world cannot take what is truly important from us.  You are our God and we love You and worship You.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for a moment so that each of us can speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for showing us ways to worship our God, both through Your own living and in Your interactions with others.  You tell us that true worship is in spirit, trusting and believing in the power and the authority of God.  Still, Lord, we worry about our safety and the safety of our loved ones if we let our faith be seen in public, for the world has become a dangerous place for believers.  But we can take heart from those who are now being more open in showing their faith, daring Satan to quieten their worship.  Please help us, Lord Jesus, to become one of those.  And forgive us when we struggle to love others like You want us to.  We know it disappoints You when we let our fear keep us from approaching others and showing Your love as we walk through each day.  Please help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, sharing Your love as we go.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.