(Hold up a $20 bill.)  Who would like this $20 bill?  I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first, let me do this.  (crumple up the bill).  Who still wants it?  What if I do this?  (drop it on the ground and grind it into the floor with shoe.  Then pick it up, all crumpled and dirty).  Now, who still wants it?

Friends, this teaches us a valuable lesson.  No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value.  It was still worth $20.  Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.  We feel as though we are worthless.  Alone.  Abandoned.  But – no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value!  Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to the One who does love you.  The worth in our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but who we are and whose we are!

And do you know who and whose you are?  You are children of God.  You belong to Him because He has delivered you.  Yes, He was angry with us.  How we have disappointed Him!  But as the first verse says, his anger has turned away!  For your sake and mine, He turned that anger onto his own Son instead of us!  And now He comforts us with his forgiveness and the promise of salvation.  Does anyone here struggle to see how valuable you are to God?

Isaiah tells what our response will be:  “I will praise you, O Lord!”  You and I have every reason in the world to praise our Lord, because even though He should be angry with us, He has turned that anger away and comforts us in his salvation!  He values us with immeasurable value!

But even with this knowledge, sometimes we are afraid, aren’t we?  5-year old Johnny was in the kitchen as his mother made supper. She asked him to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he didn’t want to go in alone. “It’s dark in there and I’m scared.” She asked again, and he persisted. Finally she said, “It’s OK—Jesus will be in there with you.” Johnny walked hesitantly to the door and slowly opened it. He peeked inside, saw it was dark, and started to leave when all at once an idea came, and he said: Jesus, if you’re in there, would you hand me that can of tomato soup?”

If you happen to be one of the 1 in 10 North Americans who struggle with Anxiety and Depression, certain things that cause fear can often be magnified into life-halting terror-producing crises that freeze you in your tracks and make a nightmare out of your daily life.  Even if you don’t struggle with A&D, there are daily things you face that bring unnecessary fear into your life.  A panic that overwhelms our souls.  I believe that God can help us get a grip on our souls.  The thing that can help you more than anything else is to adopt the “Isaiah 12 Attitude”…

Go home and print Isaiah 12 out and tape it to your wall somewhere.  Let it be your motto, your resolution, your new attitude to tackle life with.  This new attitude is how God gives you a grip on your soul.  Here it is:  God is my salvation.  Surely/ Certainly/ Absolutely God is my salvation.  God values me.  (It does not matter what anyone else thinks of me.  The thoughts of negativity that attack me and tell me I am worthless or a failure or not accomplishing anything mean nothing to me!)  God is on my side.  (I don’t need to be afraid to face the things that cause me fear!)  God will save me.  God delivers me from all trouble - all trouble to my soul.

THEREFORE, I will trust in Him.  I will not be afraid.  Why not?  because the Lord, yes, the same Lord who delivered all those people all those times, the same Lord who delivered the Israelites from Egypt, the same Lord who delivered us from sin, that same Lord will deliver me!  That Lord is my strength!  He is on my side.  He gives me strength.  He is my strength, when I have none.  When I need to “flex my muscles” and show some strength, I am flexing His muscles.  I will trust and not be afraid because He has become my salvation!  He is my way out of this problem that I am facing.  The best way out.  The only way out.  And one day, no matter what happens here, I will join the Lord forever in my real home with Him.

Friends, put these words in front of you, on your walls, on your refrigerator, on your ipods, and don’t ever forget them!  This is what will help you get a grip on your soul!  Living for the future.  Not living in the future.  We want to live in the present, but live for the future.

People who suffer with Anxiety and Depression are often helped by taking some medication.  If you are taking anti-depressants, the one thing they all have in common is that they cause your brain to produce more serotonin.  That chemical helps lessen the anxiety and depression.  Now, there are three things that produce serotonin naturally.  1) Positive thinking.  2) Exercise.  3) Laughter.  Three natural ways God has given to fight anxiety & depression!

One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, “Mommy, will you stay with me all night?” Smiling, the mother gave him a reassuring hug and said tenderly, “I can’t dear. I have to sleep in Daddy’s room.” A long silence followed.  At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, “The big sissy!”  (There, we helped you with #3 – laughter! J)

And I would strongly encourage all of you to make some use of the second thing that produces serotonin – exercise.  There is something to be said for going and burning off a little of that anxiety on a regular, manageable basis.  We weren’t made to sit in front of the screen all day.  (I would love to help you with #2 today, but decided not to have everyone stand up and do jumping jacks).  But I will concentrate on #1.  Positive thinking.  I strongly believe there is only one kind of “positive thinking” that is actually positive thinking.  And that is adopting the Isaiah 12 attitude.  That is growing in our trust in our saving God through the regular use and study of his Word!  This beats any medication, counseling, exercise program, or even laughter!

To be a healthy child of God, to adopt Isaiah 12 as the motto that you truly live by, you need a regular, daily routine of spiritual growth.  That includes Worship, Bible study, the Sacraments, Fellowship, Prayer, Serving, and Sharing your faith. Look what the text says about worship.  Give thanks to the Lord.  Proclaim that his name is exalted…Sing to the Lord… shout aloud and sing for joy!  And about Bible Study: With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  And Sharing your faith: Make known among the nations what He has done…let this be known to all the world!  And Prayer:  Call on his name.  Friends, if you are making this activity a regular part of your life, your body will be producing more serotonins than you know what to do with!  And your soul will be getting stronger than you can imagine.  And you will be living the Isaiah 12 Attitude: Surely God is my salvation; I will trust in Him and not be afraid.

When this is how you are spending your time, how will you even have time to entertain those fears?  You will be living in the present, and living for the future!  Now, don’t look for the quick fix.  It doesn’t exist.  Mike Glugosh told me about a wealthy man in Montreal who approached him one night after he gave his Anxiety & Depression Seminar and said, “I will give you $10,000 right now if you can get me healthy in 2 weeks.” But Mike, as much as he would have loved the $10,000, had to say “No, sorry, it doesn’t work that way.”  Friends, getting better is a process.  You aren’t going to be “cured” after this sermon today.  But you will start down that path if you go home today and decide to make Isaiah 12 your daily motto and practice!

Speaking of a “cure,” when are you “cured” from anxiety & depression?  Living in our world, I don’t think we can expect to never have fears again.  Or never have any feelings of anxiety again.  Even when we are growing stronger in our faith in God.  The devil still attacks.

During World War II, a military governor praised General George Patton highly for his courage and bravery.  Patton replied, “Sir, I am not a brave man … The truth is, I am an utter craven coward. I have never been within the sound of gunshot or in sight of battle in my whole life that I wasn’t so scared that I had sweat in the palms of my hands.” Years later, when Patton’s autobiography was published, it contained this significant statement by the general: “I learned very early in my life never to take counsel of my fears.”  Friends, “Recovered” from A&D does not mean you will never be anxious again.  (That’s called “deceased!”)  “Recovered” means that you don’t listen to those fears.  It means that you are no longer afraid of them.

Fearing depression makes you depressed.  Fearing anxiety makes you anxious.  Do you know the one phrase Jesus spoke more than any other?  Do not be afraid.  When Jesus was called into Jairus’ home after his daughter had died, and everyone was at his home mourning and making funeral arrangements, Jesus turned to Jairus and said, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”  You and I have no reason to really fear.  Why?  Because God is our salvation!  Because our real home is with Him forever in heaven.  We are living for the future!

God will give you the grip you need!  Believe He can!  Believe He cares!  Trust in Him and not be afraid!  Fear takes away so much peace from us.  When ancient sailors sketched maps of the oceans, they disclosed their fears.  On the vast unexplored waters, cartographers wrote words such as these: “Here be dragons.” “Here be demons.”  “Here be sirens.”  If a map were drawn of your world, would we read such phrases?  Over the unknown waters of relationships and parenting challenges, “Here be dragons.”  Near the sea of career hurdles: “Here be demons.”  And in the ocean of guilt and fear of death and eternity, do we read “Here be sirens”?

If so, take heart from the example of Sir John Franklin.  He was a master mariner in the days of King Henry V.  Distant waters were a mystery to him, just as they were to other navigators.  Unlike his colleagues, however, Sir John Franklin was a man of faith.  The maps that belonged to him bore the mark of trust.  On his maps he had crossed out the phrases “Here be dragons,” “Here be demons,” and “Here be sirens.”  In their place he wrote the phrase “Here is God.”  Mark it down.  You will never go where God is not.  You may encounter some pretty stormy waters.  But God says: “I am with you always.”  Surely God is my salvation.  I will trust in Him and not be afraid.

Last week we talked about scarecrows.  A wise bird knows that a scarecrow is actually an advertisement!  It announces that some very delicious fruit is to be had for the picking!  There are scarecrows in all the best gardens.  If we are wise, we too shall treat our “scarecrow” as though it were an invitation!  Every scary thing standing in my way is really only a “scarecrow” beckoning me to God’s richest blessings!  Faith is a bird which loves to perch on scarecrows!  All our fears are really groundless, because God is our salvation!   Amen.